Heath was born in
Lake Village, Arkansas, to Charles Merrill and Ann Maples Heath. When he was still an infant, his mother died, and he was sent to live with his grandmother and aunt in
Scottsboro, Alabama. Small-town life would later inform his literary work. He attended
Baylor Military Academy in
Chattanooga, Tennessee, and the
University of Virginia in
Charlottesville. The outbreak of
World War II interrupted his education, and he enlisted in the
U.S. Army Air Corps. He served in the
China Burma India theater as a radio operator in the
B-24 Liberator, and he was awarded the
Distinguished Flying Cross with oak leaf cluster. After the war, he returned to university and completed his degree in English. Upon graduation in 1949, he worked as a copy editor at the
Chattanooga Free Press. In 1950 he married Mary Anne Stahle, with whom he had three sons. Later, he returned to Scottsboro and worked at the family textile mill, Maples Industries, until his retirement. He died in
Guntersville in 2007. == Publications==