Jack Willis was born in Good Pine, Louisiana, in a sawmill town near Jena, Louisiana, in 1936. Jena, roughly 20 miles from Catahoula Lake, was the home of one grandfather who had b...vizualizați mai multeJack Willis was born in Good Pine, Louisiana, in a sawmill town near Jena, Louisiana, in 1936. Jena, roughly 20 miles from Catahoula Lake, was the home of one grandfather who had been a ‘market hunter’ earlier in life, killing waterfowl, packing them in brine, and shipping them to fancy restaurants in Baton Rouge. Later in life he was a stock tenderer for Good Pine Lumber Company. His other grandfather was a railroad track contractor who built one line to within a mile of Catahoula Lake.
Mr. Willis attended Southwestern Louisiana University (currently called University of Louisiana, Lafayette) in Lafayette, Louisiana, in the early 1950s. He dropped out of college to work pipeline engineering crews, spending over twenty years as an Inspector/Surveyor for the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
Mr. Willis went back to college at the age of 53 and acquired a B.S. Degree in Addictive Disease Counseling. After 15 years as a counselor, he was granted a judicious disability, retired, and began to compile stories, tales, yarns and true facts relating to that Grand Lady known as Catahoula Lake.
Mr. Willis continues a weekly column in the Jena Times, a local newspaper, named Grass Roots and Cockleburs. He has plans for a sequel to Catahoula Lake Chronicles: A View From Indian Bluff.vizualizați mai puține