DAMON VEACH was born in Zylks, Louisiana, in the far northwest corner of Caddo Parish.  He started school in Rodessa, moved to Logansport where he started in the fifth grade, and went on to graduate valedictorian of his senior class.  He attended Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas on a scholarship, majoring in biology and secondary education with minors in geography and chemistry,  but he also pursued a writing career by entering the Famous Writers School of Westport, Connecticut on a correspondence basis after graduation.  His teachers included Rod Serling, Faith Baldwin, Bruce Catton, and other great writers of the time who formed the school.  After a couple of years in the teaching profession, he became employed as a forms and reports manager with General Dynamics in Fort Worth and later with Ling-Temco-Vought in Dallas.  He became a consultant for a forms company in Dallas, then Lebanon (Pennsylvania), and later New Orleans before landing a job as a writer for New Orleans Magazine and copy editor for a major newspaper.  His wife is deceased, but as a family man, he is proud of his four children, grandchildren, and more recently his great grandchild.  He has donated his complete genealogical library to the DeSoto Parish Historical Society, and it is now housed in the historic Mansfield Female College Museum in Mansfield, Louisiana, a part of the museum complex under the Secretary of State’s office, where it is available for research.  The dedication of the museum took place on March 14, 2009.  It is one of the largest collections of its kind in the state, and he continues to add to the collection and to support the museum and other organizations in his home parish where he still owns property.  In his spare time, he hybridizes Hibiscus rosa-sinensis, writes genealogy columns, and works with preservation groups.  He also has a number of fiction works in print.