Dr. Lucas G. "Luke" Boyd first saw the light of day in a three-room shot gun house on Jabe Dunnaway's place near Anguilla, Mississippi. Doc Smith, his uncle and country doctor, was the attending physician. It was the depths of the Depression. His father had lost his livelihood and had returned to the land to feed his family. However, within a few years, he was managing one of those sprawling, 2,000-plus acre cotton plantations The Delta was known for. This plantation culture of his early years left an indelible mark on his son. A stroke of good fortune resulted in a scholarship to be one of the equipment managers for the football team, allowing him to attend The University of Mississippi, where he earned a B.S. degree. During his career he attended a total of five universities, two more of which saw fit to grant him degrees: Middle Tennessee State University (M.S.), The University of Tennessee (Ph.D. in English History.) Stints at The University of North Carolina and The University of Chattanooga were for special study in Economics and Far Eastern History, respectively. He entered the Army through the ROTC program and served for two years as a 1st Lt. in an armored unit. After leaving the service, he began a career in education which spanned 48 years both at the secondary and college levels. He retired after serving for 19 years as Principal of Battle Ground Academy, a private college preparatory school in Franklin, Tennessee. His publishing credits include: four books, Coon Dogs and Outhouses, Vol. I, Vol II, and Vol III; Don't Call Me Hero (ghost writer), The Story of a WW II Bomber Pilot; 9 short stories; one article in the Tennessee Encyclopedia of History and Culture. He currently writes regular columns for a local newspaper, The Williamson Herald. He and his wife, Sara, have been married for 64 years and have two children and two grandchildren. They live in Franklin, Tennessee.
