Alex Haley, Henning, Tennessee
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Titansfan
N 35° 40.398 W 089° 34.575
16S E 266829 N 3950771
Pulitzer Prize wining auther, Alex Haley
Waymark Code: WM2EGY
Location: Tennessee, United States
Date Posted: 10/20/2007
Views: 96
Alexander Murray Palmer Haley (August 11, 1921 – February 10, 1992) was an American writer. He is best known as the author of Roots: The Saga of an American Family, and of The Autobiography of Malcolm X, the latter of which he wrote in collaboration with Malcolm X.
Born in Ithaca, New York, in 1921, Haley spent his first five years in Henning, Tennessee in an African American family mixed with Irish and Cherokee ancestry with his 2 younger brothers. Haley's father, Simon Alexander Haley, was a professor of agriculture who had served in World War I. The younger Haley always spoke proudly of his father and the incredible obstacles of racism he had overcome. On May 24, 1939, Alex Haley began his 20-year service with the Coast Guard.
He enlisted as a mess-boy and then became a third class Petty Officer in the rate of Mess Attendant, one of the few enlisted designators open to African Americans at that time. It was during his service in the Pacific theater of operations that Haley taught himself the craft of writing stories. He talked of how the greatest enemy he and his crew faced during their long sea voyages wasn't the Japanese but boredom. He collected many rejection slips over an eight-year period before his first story was bought.
After World War II, Haley was able to petition the Coast Guard to allow him to transfer into the field of journalism, and by 1949 he had become a First Class Petty Officer in the rate of Journalist. He later advanced to the rank of Chief Petty Officer and held this grade until his retirement from the Coast Guard in 1959.
Alex Haley's awards and decorations from the Coast Guard include the American Defense Service Medal (w/ "Sea" clasp), American Campaign Medal, Asiatic-Pacific Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal, World War II Victory Medal, Coast Guard Good Conduct Medal (w/ 1 silver and 1 bronze service star), Korean Service Medal, National Defense Service Medal, United Nations Service Medal, and the Coast Guard Expert Marksmanship Medal.
After his retirement from the Coast Guard, Haley began his writing career and eventually became a senior editor for Reader's Digest
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