Lewis Grizzard

 

Lewis McDonald Grizzard Jr. was born to Lewis Sr. and Christine Word  Grizzard on October 20, 1946, at Fort Benning Military Hospital, where his father was stationed as a soldier in the army. They lived here until his parents separated a few years later and his mother and him moved them to her parent’s small house in Morland, GA. He spent his childhood. living with his papa Bun and Mama Willie.

  Lewis played little league baseball and put a lot of effort in becoming a good basketball player.  Because, his father had played basketball and had coached several teams when Lewis was a baby. He was very proud to have scored the winning point’s, in overtime, in a high school game when his daddy had came to watch him play.

  After he finished high school he enrolled in the University of Georgia to study journalism. He worked part time for the Athens Daily News, while he went to school and took a job as executive sports editor for the Atlanta Journal after he finished school in 1968. He left there to become executive sports editor for the Chicago Sun-Times in 1975, which he describes in his book “If I Ever Get Back to Georgia I’m Gonna Nail My Feet to the Ground” as the most miserable time of his life.

  In 1977 he returned to Atlanta as a sports columnist for the Atlanta Constitution. After a short while he switched to writing a humor/life column, which was mostly about the south, his mama, his daddy, his friends, his ex-wives, food, University of Georgia football, and his dog “Catfish” which was a gift from Vince and Barbara Dooley.  He published 25 books and at his peek his articles were syndicated in 450 newspapers across the country.

  He found out about a heart condition that he had when he had an exam to play ball when he was 13, and the doctor told him he could play but he would have problems later in life. He had his first heart operation on March 22, 1982 at 35, and in March of 1993 he survived his third major heart surgery by what his doctors called a miracle. By March 1994 he needed, yet another heart surgery, which he was not expected to live through, so 4 days before his operation he married Dedra Kyle, because he wanted her five and a half year old daughter, Jordan, to inherit his estate. Today there is a museum in Moreland, GA., in his memory.