Nunnally Johnson was born December 5, 1897 in Columbus, Georgia, the son of James Nunnally Johnson, superintendent of the pipe and sheet metal department of the Columbus Division of Shops of the Central of Georgia Railroad and Johnnie Pearl Johnson (nee Patrick), who served 20 years on the Board of Education, the founder of the Mother’s Club of Georgia and President of the Columbus Federation of Women’s Club. He graduated from Columbus High School in 1915 and worked for 6 months with the Columbus Enquirer. He joined the Georgia Calvary, went to Officers’ Training in Louisville, Kentucky. He worked for the New York Tribune in 1918 for 6 weeks, then went to the Brooklyn Eagle for e years. He married Alice Mason while in New York and they had one daughter, Margorie. While still a reporter, he began submitting short stories to magazines. In November 1929 he quit the newspaper business to pursue writing fill time. He married Marion Byrnes in 1927 and they had one daughter, Nora. In 1932 he got an offer to go to Hollywood to write for Paramount at the invitation of Herman Mankiewicz. During his Hollywood career he wrote the screenplays for 13 movies. He married Doris Bowden in 1940 and they had three children, Christie, Roxie, and Scott. He retired in 1970 and died in 1977. In 1997 he was the subject of a symposium to mark the 100th year of his birth, spearheaded by Thornton Jordon in 1997.