Madison P. Jones, Jr. was born in Nashville in 1925. The distinguished novelist began writing at Vanderbilt where he lettered in football and met prominent teachers of literature who helped start his career. He did graduate work at the University of Florida where he met his wife Shailah. He came to Auburn University in 1956 and taught there for 37 years. During this time he received many awards and prizes, including a Guggenheim Fellowship, The T.S. Elliot Prize for Fiction, The Harper Lee Award for A Distinguished Alabama Writer and The Michael Shaara Prize for Excellence in Civil War Fiction. Among his novels, An Exile was made into the movie, I Walk the Line. Mr. Jones was preceded in death by his wife of 59 years, Shailah Jones. He is survived by his five children, Carroll Lofty, Madison Percy Jones, III, Ellen Green, Michael Jones, and Andrew Jones; and his twelve grandchildren.