Dr. Ferrol Sams, one of our earliest and most esteemed authors, passed away this morning at the age of 90.
Sams had a family medical practice in Fayetteville, where he has worked with his wife, Helen, also a physician, and two of their sons. Somehow this busy country doctor also found time for one of his favorite hobbies—writing. Between the hours of 4:00 and 6:00 a.m., he wrote a novel on a Blue Horse tablet with a blue, felt-tipped pen.
At the age of 60, Sams published his first book with us, Run With the Horsemen, which chronicles a boy’s account of growing up on an ancestral farm in Georgia. Run With the Horsemen continues to be a classic Southern novel reminiscent of To Kill a Mockingbird, Tom Sawyer, and The Catcher in the Rye. This past summer, the Georgia Writers Association honored Sams with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 48th annual Georgia Author of the Year Awards.
He is survived by his wife, daughter, three sons, eight grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren.
Rest in peace, Sambo.
For more information about Ferrol Sams, visit:
http://www.emory.edu/home/about/anniversary/175-of-everything/makers-of-history-details/sams.html