William Parker, newspaper publisher and artist, began working on this book in 1999 when he spent several months in the Robert W. Woodruff Library at Emory University in Atlanta. He also worked at the Atlanta History Center researching the Coca-Cola section. His first writings about Coca-Cola appeared as a monthly series in two of Chattanooga’s community papers. Parker was born and raised in the South. Although his immediate family lived in Chattanooga where he received his early education, much of his childhood was spent with his grandparents who operated a cotton plantation in South Georgia. He later wrote a book that included much of his memories in the cotton country.

He attended public grammar schools and graduated from McCallie School which at the time was a private military academy. He entered the University of Tennessee’s School of Journalism where he graduated with honors in 1960. During his senior year he wrote promotional columns for Life magazine. Following college graduation, he took a job as general assignment reporter for the Chattanooga Times, a holding of the New York Times. For a short time he was vice president of a local advertising firm and later became Director of Communications for the Tennessee Valley Public Power Association. In 1987, Parker founded the Mountain City Publishing Company which publishes community newspapers in the Chattanooga area.

He is active in community affairs and serves on the board of the Hunter Museum of American Art and the Forest Hills Cemetery. He has recently been named chairman of the newly created George Thomas Hunter Society, a function of the Hunter Museum of American Arts.

Parker is noted for his watercolors which have been featured in publication and have sold at galleries in Chattanooga, at the Swan House in Atlanta, and at the Gulf Coast in Florida. Parker’s family includes his wife, Margaret, a married daughter, and two grandchildren.