Ferrol Sams, Jr., was born in Woolsey, Georgia on September 26, 1922. He received a bachelor’s degree from Mercer University in 1942 and attended Emory University Medical School for a year before leaving to enlist in the military in World War II. After the War, he continued his studies at Emory, where he met and married his wife, Helen Fletcher, who was also studying medicine. Receiving his M.D. in 1949, Sams and his wife opened a family practice in Fayetteville, where they would work until retirement. At the age of 60, Sams published his first book based on his youth, Run with the Horsemen. He would continue to publish two more semi-biographical books with The Whisper of the River and When All the World Was Young in addition to five other published works. On January 29, 2013, Dr. Sams passed away at his home in Fayetteville, Georgia, survived by his wife, four children, eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.