Oct. 12, 2022, was the 100th birthday of a man named Borden Deal. Unfortunately, he did not live to celebrate it, having died of a heart attack in January 1985 at the age of 62.

Borden Deal was a writer of quality fiction – novels and short stories. He was born in Mississippi to a poor couple who had their farm taken from them during the Great Depression.

The family’s precarious financial situation was made even worse when Borden’s father died in an automobile accident in 1938 when Borden was only 16 years old.

Borden, in fact, was not the boy’s name – it was his father’s. Born Loyse (pronounced “Loy-say”) Deal, the son used his father’s name when he became a writer.

When he was a young child, Loyse loved books. He was small for his age and had red hair. One of his classmates later remembered how Loyse (whom she affectionately called “Little Red”) could always be found reading a book.

Once he was grown, Loyse left home and lived a vagabond existence for a while, experiencing life in different parts of the United States and taking whatever temporary jobs he could find.

When the United States entered World War II, Loyse joined the Navy and served until the war ended. He then decided to benefit from the GI Bill and attend college at the University of Alabama where he studied creative writing. He sold his first short story while still in college.

After graduating in 1949, Deal attended graduate school at a college in Mexico City. While living there, he continued to write daily. He also got married, but the union was not successful.

Back in the United States, Deal met a young woman named Babs Hodges who was also studying creative writing at the University of Alabama. When she graduated in 1952, she and Loyse got married.

Both of the newlyweds decided to devote their lives to writing fiction, and each of them was good at it, as we will see in Part 2 of this series.