Nov. 10, 1953
Rheta Grimsley Johnson was born in Colquitt, Georgia, but grew up in Montgomery, Alabama, and attended Auburn University. At Auburn, she won the National Pacemaker Award for excellence in student journalism. She began her newspaper career in 1980 at the Memphis Commercial Appeal, and later published an anthology of the columns she wrote there. She later wrote a biography of “Peanuts” creator Charles Schulz and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for commentary in 1991. She also was a columnist for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and authored several other books. She continues to write a weekly essay for King Features Syndicate that is distributed to about 50 newspapers nationwide.
Read more at Encyclopedia of Alabama.
For more on Alabama’s bicentennial, visit Alabama 200.
