The Mockingbird's Ballad

A sixth generation Tennessean, Doak M. Mansfield and his kin have hunted, farmed, preached, fought and taught school across the Sequatchie and Tennessee Valleys for over two centuries. Born in Fayetteville on November 28, 1948, he was reared in rural Lincoln County (Dellrose, Yukon and Mary's Grove) and attended its public schools; Carmargo, Taft and Central High. He began working when he was in high school at age thirteen at Kirkland Grocery, a nearby country store.

Able to finance a college education through Work-Study Programs and National Defense Loans, he left his share-cropper/factory worker home in 1966 for Martin (Methodist) College in Pulaski, Tennessee. He graduated from Martin in 1968 with an Associate of Arts (A.A.) degree. He then attended Austin Peay State University in Clarksville, Tennessee, graduating in 1970 with a major in history (Bachelor of Science) and teacher certification. Mansfield taught public school in Cowan, Tennessee, for a year before returning to Martin College as Dean of Admissions and Director of Housing.

Entering the ministry in 1973, he attended Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, D.C., while serving as pastor of Sudley United Methodist Church adjacent to the Manassas (Bull Run) Battlefield in Prince William County in northern Virginia, 1973-75. He became a Unitarian Universalist minister in 1975 and served the Heritage UU Church (originally the First Universalist Society) in Cincinnati, Ohio, for ten years, 1975-85. He earned his Master of Divinity (M. Div.) degree from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, was earned in 1977.

During his Cincinnati ministry, he served as part-time staff chaplain at the Bethesda Hospital, US Army Reserve Chaplain, and in various community service activities in the Mt. Washington, Anderson Township and greater Cincinnati communities.

In 1985, Mansfield became minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church of Huntsville, Alabama, and retired from that position in 2000. He earned the Doctor of Ministry (D. Min.) degree from the Graduate Theological Foundation, South Bend, Indiana, in 1996.

He now devotes most of his time to writing, preaching occasionally, tending to house and cat (Opie) and practicing unconventional ministry.

This is his first novel. He lives in the Piney Woods of Jones County near Laurel, Mississippi, with his wife, Peggy F. Owens-Mansfield. He is the father of two grown sons - John Amos Mansfield of Hattiesburg, Mississippi and James Adam Mansfield of Cincinnati, Ohio - and is the son of Margaret J. Maddox Mansfield and the late John H. Mansfield.