Shelby Foote

Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. (November 17, 1916 – June 27, 2005) was an American historian and writer. He was an important person for Civil War documentaries. He wrote many books about the war and Abraham Lincoln. His most famous book about the war was The Civil War: A Narrative.  Foote was born on in Greenville, Mississippi and died in Memphis, Tennessee.

Early life
Shelby Dade Foote, Jr. studied at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Foote is of Jewish descent, but he was raised as an Episcopalian.

Career
Foote began writing a three volume, 3000-page history, together called The Civil War: A Narrative. The separate volumes are Fort Sumter to Perryville (1958), Fredericksburg to Meridian (1963), and Red River to Appomattox (1974).

When The Civil War by Ken Burns was first broadcast, his telephone number was publicly listed. and He received many phone calls from people who had seen him on television. Foote never unlisted his number, and the volume of calls increased each time the series re-aired.

Personal life
He was married to Tess Lavery from 1944 until they divorced in 1946. Then he was married to Marguerite "Peggy" Desommes from 1948 until they divorced in 1952. They had one child. Then he was married to Gwyn Rainer from 1956 until his death in 2005. They had one child. 

Death
Foote died on June 27, 2005 at a hospital in Memphis, Tennessee from heart failure caused by a heart attack and pulmonary embolism. He was 88 years old. Foote is buried at Elmwood Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

References

Other websites

 Shelby Foote Grave
 Shelby Foote Papers Inventory, in the Southern Historical Collection, UNC-Chapel Hill
 Write TV Public Television Interview with Shelby Foote 
 PBS Civil War 
 American Enterprise interview with Bill Kauffman 
"Shelby Foote's War Story: How a Memphis novelist’s history of the Civil War made history itself" from Garden & Gun

Category:1916 births
Category:2005 deaths
Category:Deaths from heart failure
Category:Deaths from pulmonary embolism
Category:American historians
Category:Episcopalians
Category:Writers from Mississippi