Charles L. Overby

Charles Overby was born in 1946 in Jackson, Mississippi. His father was a used car salesman and an alcoholic. "I had a lot of uncertainty in early childhood," says Overby. "My father's alcoholism affected the whole family. You just never knew what would unfold." Overby's parents divorced when Overby was still quite young, and his father was never able to overcome his addiction. He died when Overby was 14.

After their divorce, Overby's mother worked at minimum-wage jobs, but she remained a lifelong optimist. "She never had a gloomy outlook," says Overby. "She always made me and my younger brother feel that as long we had each other things would be fine. There was lots of love in our home."

Overby and his brother had paper routes and pooled their earnings with their mother's at the end of each week. "My mother was terrific at managing money," he says. "She could do more with less than anyone I ever knew. She gave me great lessons in frugality and taught me to appreciate what you have wherever you are in life.

Overby entered a contest to sell the most newspapers in Mississippi. "I went out every night and knocked on doors," he says. He won the contest, which was sponsored by Parade magazine, and he was sent with other winners to Europe for 10 days. The trip was an eye-opening experience for a young man who had never been out of Mississippi. "It gave me a great sense of confidence that I could achieve a goal if I set my mind to it," he says.

When he was a sophomore in high school, Overby took a journalism class and immediately realized this was what he was meant to do. He recalls asking a friend, "You mean they pay you to do this?" He signed on to be a sports reporter for the local newspaper and covered all the high school football games.

"I loved it all,"