Bern Ballard was born near Inez, in Victoria County, Texas in 1920, one of six sons born to the family of a tenant farmer. Five of the six sons would survive to maturity and the five all served in WWII, with one being killed in action. His father had a serious chronic illness that was misdiagnosed and as a result, beginning when Bern was three years old, they moved frequently during his childhood years in unsuccessful attempts to find a favorable location for the father’s health. By 1927 they had farmed at Bethel (outside Ballinger) for two years, at Concho for a year and at Paint Rock for a year, before moving to Hext, in Menard County, where Bern started to school. The...