Shepard, Sam
- Ann T. Keene
Extract
Shepard, Sam (5 Nov. 1943–27 July 2017), playwright, actor, and director, was born Samuel Shepard Rogers III at Fort Sheridan, a military base in Lake County, Illinois, to Samuel Shepard Rogers, Jr., who was serving as a bomber pilot in the U.S. Army Air Forces, and Jane Elaine Schook. Nicknamed Steve to distinguish him from other family members named Samuel, he spent much of his childhood on air force bases in the United States and abroad. When he turned twelve, his father retired from the military to settle down, apparently not too happily, as a teacher and farmer. The family, which now included two younger sisters, moved to California, eventually settling on an avocado ranch in Duarte. Doing odd jobs on his own and adjacent properties, he seemed headed toward a career in ranching, but he also read widely and became a devotee of jazz....
