Novelist, former W.Va. resident Johnny Quarles dies at 62
Johnny Quarles, a former Cabin Creek resident who wrote a dozen Western novels and several television screenplays, including work on the "Lonesome Dove" television mini-series, died Sunday in an Enid, Okla., hospital.
Johnny Quarles, a former Cabin Creek resident who wrote a dozen Western novels and several television screenplays, including work on the "Lonesome Dove" television mini-series, died Sunday in an Enid, Okla., hospital.
Born in Warren, Ohio, he grew in the Kanawha County towns of Carbon, Leewood and Kayford, where his father worked as a mine electrician. He attended East Bank High School before his family moved to New Mexico.
Quarles, 62, lived most of his adult life in Enid, where he worked for a railroad, owned a restaurant, operated an oil well maintenance service and worked as an account executive and sports announcer for a radio station before trying his hand at writing.
After his first novel, a spy story based on Hitler's quest to gain the treasures of Europe, was rejected 51 times, Berkley Books awarded him a three-book deal in 1989, launching his career as a Western novelist. Several of his books made it to the New York Times best-seller list.
"I've done some of my best writing after getting rejected," Quarles said in a 1989 Gazette interview. "It made me try harder. It was a tough life back in West Virginia, and I think I developed kind of a tough nature up there."
Quarles' novels, published by Berkley and Avon Books, included "Fools Gold," "Brack," "Outlaws" and "No Man's Land." He was novelist in residence at Phillips University in Enid from 1995 to 1998.
Survivors include his wife, Wendy; sons John Quarles of Enid and Dusty Quarles of Broken Arrow, Okla.; daughters, Nikki and Katy Quarles, both of Enid.
Johnny Quarles, a former Cabin Creek resident who wrote a dozen Western novels and several television screenplays, including work on the "Lonesome Dove" television mini-series, died Sunday in an Enid, Okla., hospital.
Born in Warren, Ohio, he grew in the Kanawha County towns of Carbon, Leewood and Kayford, where his father worked as a mine electrician. He attended East Bank High School before his family moved to New Mexico.
Quarles, 62, lived most of his adult life in Enid, where he worked for a railroad, owned a restaurant, operated an oil well maintenance service and worked as an account executive and sports announcer for a radio station before trying his hand at writing.
After his first novel, a spy story based on Hitler's quest to gain the treasures of Europe, was rejected 51 times, Berkley Books awarded him a three-book deal in 1989, launching his career as a Western novelist. Several of his books made it to the New York Times best-seller list.
"I've done some of my best writing after getting rejected," Quarles said in a 1989 Gazette interview. "It made me try harder. It was a tough life back in West Virginia, and I think I developed kind of a tough nature up there."
Quarles' novels, published by Berkley and Avon Books, included "Fools Gold," "Brack," "Outlaws" and "No Man's Land." He was novelist in residence at Phillips University in Enid from 1995 to 1998.
Survivors include his wife, Wendy; sons John Quarles of Enid and Dusty Quarles of Broken Arrow, Okla.; daughters, Nikki and Katy Quarles, both of Enid.
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