Blakeney, Reed

James Reed Blakeney was born in rural Pickens County, Alabama and grew up during the bleak days of the Great Depression. As a 13-year-old boy, he watched his older brothers leave for Europe to take their places in the ranks of the Allied Forces during World War Two. He came of age in the aftermath of that conflict.

He has been active in the fields of education and industry. He is a published poet and is president of a medical gas and equipment company. He is very much a product of the times and events depicted in A Mulberry Summer.