Gene Edwards
From the Gene Edwards homepage -
Gene Edwards is of French parentage; Louisiana Cajun in particular. In the year 1790 a Frenchman named Joseph Edoir jumped ship in New Orleans harbor and so began the Edwards family in America. His father, J.C. “Blackie” Edwards, an oil field worker, moved to Texas while following the oil boom. In 1927 he married Gladys Brewer. They had two sons, the second son being Gene. At the time of his marriage Blackie Edwards was illiterate, as were all of his people throughout the previous generations. Gene’s mother was the daughter of a migrant farm worker; that is, the family made its living moving from one place to another picking cotton. Her father had a phobia about tornadoes, therefore Gladys grew up in a storm cellar, an underground dugout, about six feet by eight feet. Gene's mother was the first person ever to go to high school in her family. On the basis of her high school diploma she was able to teach school. Her whole life she had but one dream—that of becoming a writer; a dream never fulfilled. But it was her gift of writing that was passed on to her youngest son.
Read more at www.geneedwards.com/autobiography.shtml#author