In 1935 and early 1936, three
cousins were born into tight-knit families in Ferriday, Louisiana. Rare piano
talent, strong parental relationships, the Pentecostal church, family struggle,
and a variety of musical influences worked together to produce men who
changed twentieth-century music and culture. The individual stories of these
three cousins illustrate their varied paths from small-town America to a world
stage. Woven together, the collective story becomes even more compelling and
amazing.
UNCONQUERED is a story so unlikely that it would
not be believable if written as fiction. It tells of rock ‘n’ roll legend Jerry
Lee Lewis, televangelist Jimmy Swaggart, and country music star Mickey Gilley.
These very different men, raised in the same time and place, with similar
talents, were fated for entirely different destinies even as their lives would
always be profoundly intertwined. Born into poverty, each man, in his own way,
would become an iconic figure blessed with the ability to thrill and inspire.
The story's touchstones of
music, perseverance, and faith could wield such force only in the American
South. There, in the Louisiana lowlands’ Concordia Parish, their story began in
the midst of the Great Depression.
About J.D.Davis
J.D. Davis was raised in Quitman,
Texas, a quiet community in the northeast part of the state. Having grown up in
a small town in the rural South—similar in many ways to the cousins’
hometown of Ferriday, Louisiana—with many similar influences as the
cousins, he has meaningful insight into these three men.
Davis attended the University of
Texas on a full academic scholarship, received a B.A. with highest honors in
economics, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. He later received a master’s degree
from SMU.
As a successful businessman,
Davis achieved the highest credentials as an actuary and became a principal in
a large firm while still in his twenties. He currently manages an employee
benefits consulting practice that covers the southern region of the United
States, with offices in four cities.
Davis remembers his father
watching Jimmy Swaggart on television and being intrigued by the evangelist's
magnificent piano talent. As a teenager, Davis became a huge fan of Jerry Lee
Lewis. He first attended one of Lewis’s live performances as a college student
and was awe-struck to see this man put on a breathtaking performance. Davis
grew up listening to country music of the seventies and eighties, when Mickey
Gilley was consistently producing number one country hits. He became fascinated
by the ways these three very different cousins achieved and dealt with eventual
success and has been a dedicated fan for years.
Davis has worked with a talented
team of many. His editors included Elizabeth Kaye, an award winning journalist
who has often written about southern music and southern preachers. As a
contributing editor to Rolling
Stone, she
interviewed Sam Phillips and gathered firsthand experience of Jerry Lee Lewis
when covering sessions at which he played with Johnny Cash, Carl Perkins, and
Roy Orbison. As a contributing editor to John Kennedy’s George magazine, Kaye wrote
extensively about Billy Graham and his son Franklin, traveled on several
missionary trips with Franklin, and worked with ABC’s 20/20 to produce and write a major Billy
Graham profile.
You can visit his website at http://www.unconqueredthebook.Visit his Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/
Visit his Twitter page at https://twitter.com/
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