The renowned motivational speaker Zig Ziglar was born prematurely in Coffee County, Alabama, to John Silas Ziglar and Lila Wescott Ziglar. He was the tenth of 12 children, and the youngest boy. In 1931, when Ziglar was five years old, his father (John Ziglar) took a management position at a Mississippi farm, and his family moved to Yazoo City, Mississippi, where he spent most of his early childhood. The next year, his father died of a stroke, and his younger sister died two days later. Ziglar met his wife, Jean, in 1944, in Jackson, Mississippi. He was 17 and she was 16; they married in late 1946. They had four children: Suzan, Tom, Cindy, and Julie. Commitment to Christianity took place on Independence Weekend 1972. “I claim July 4th as my “born again day.” Ziglar, a Baptist, integrated Christianity into his motivational work. He was also a Republican who endorsed former Governor of Arkansas Mike Huckabee for his party’s presidential nomination in 2008.