Shanghai Sequoyah Pierce: An American Story

Shanghai Sequoyah Pierce was born and raised on a Texas ranch. He grew to excel in baseball, basketball and football; he also grew to 6'9" in height. The boy was named for his ancestors, Abel "Shanghai" Pierce, a famous Texas rancher, and Sequoyah, the Cherokee native who invented the tribe's written language. Shanghai won an athletic scholarship for medical school but before attending college he joined the Marine Corps and landed in Korea.

The injuries he received in Korean ended his athletic career but didn't stop him from roping calves with his father and working with the ranch's horses and cattle. After medical school he became a veterinarian and married his childhood sweetheart, who had become an M.D. Shanghai settled on the same ranch where he was born.