Zig Ziglar Biography

Zig Ziglar	Hilary Hinton Ziglar Born: 1926-11-06 Birthplace: Coffee County, AL Race: White Religion: Born-Again Christian Field: Author Famous for: Motivational speaker
Field: Author

Zig Ziglar was born in Coffee County, Alabama. His parents were John Silas Ziglar and Lila Ziglar. He was the tenth of twelve children.

In 1931, when Ziglar was four years old, his father accepted a management position at a Mississippi farm, and his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he spent most of his childhood. In 1932, his father died of a stroke, and his younger sister died two days later, leaving his mother to raise the remaining eleven children alone.

Ziglar served in the Navy during World War II (circa 1943 to 1945). He was in the Navy V-12 Navy College Training Program, attending the University of South Carolina.

On September 15, 1944, he met his wife, Jean, at the YWCA in Jackson, Mississippi. He was 17 and she was 16. After courting her for over two years, she accepted his hand in marriage. They were married in late 1946. [2]

Ziglar later worked as a salesman in a succession of companies, during which time his sales skills improved and his interest in motivational speaking grew.

In 1968, Ziglar became a vice president and training director for the Automotive Performance company, moving to Dallas, Texas, where he still lives today.

In 1970, Ziglar went into the business of motivational speaker full-time. He often incorporates his strong Christian values into his enthusiastic speaking.