Writer. After graduating from high school in Fayetteville, Arkansas he was drafted into the US Army during World War II. He saw action in the Pacific and was stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After the war, he returned to Fayetteville and attended the University of Arkansas, graduating in 1949 with a bachelor's degree in journalism. He rejoined the army as an officer and served another eighteen years and was stationed in several places around the world. While stationed in Madison, Wisconsin he earned a master's degree in the history of mass communication from the University of Wisconsin. His master's thesis detailed the treaties that established reservations for the Indian Tribes of the Great Plains. He developed the thesis into his first published, "The Treaty of Medicine Lodge." Following his tour in Madison he served as the public information officer at the Pentagon. He retired as lieutenant colonel in1968 and returned to Madison. He taught journalism at the University while developing his talent as an artist and author. For some period of time he had contemplating a historical novel about what history might have been like if Custer had survived the Battle of the Little Big Horn. In his last summer at Madison developed an interest in the book wit a New York literary agent. He left Madison and returned to Fayetteville where he spent almost two years writing "The Court Martial of George Armstrong Custer." The book was adapted into a TV movie starring James Olson and Brian Keith. That success led him to write a string of historical novels. Two of the books, "Arresting Sitting Bull" and "Remember Santiago" were based on actual events. "The Savage Race" and "Shadow of the Moon" traced several generations of characters as they tried to tame the West. He wrote stories that were sympathetic to the Indian's struggle with the settlers. He also wrote novels such as, "A Creek Called Wounded Knee", "Winding Stair", "Weedy Rough", and "The Barefoot Brigade." He won three Golden Spur Awards from the Western Writers of America, and in 1993, was awarded that association's first Owen Wister Lifetime Achievement Award. The Washington Post said of him, "Slowly but with infinite grace, he is creating a masterful fictional history of America!" After his first published mystery, the New York Times said he had produced, "A big and beautiful western mystery." He died at his home from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) caused by lifelong smoking. His seventeenth novel, dramatizing early Texas history was published posthumously in 2000.