Overholser, Wayne D., 1906-1996

Wayne Overholser was born on September 4, 1906, in Pomeroy, Washington, the youngest of four children of pioneer parents. He was raised in the Willamette Valley, and most of his early education was in a one-room schoolhouse. After college, he began his teaching career, which lasted 19 years. In the summers between 1927 and 1934, taking one year off in the middle, he earned a bachelor of science degree from the University of Washington.

In a botany class, he met Evaleth Miller, with whom he later eloped. He had been interested in creative writing for many years, but all his attempts to sell stories were met with rejection until a writing course taught in 1935 by E. Douglas Branch and Robert Penn Warren. In the fall of the next year, he sold his first story, to Popular Western . Each year that followed he sold more stories.

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