Glen Rounds died just a few weeks before his induction ceremony. He was known as the last of the great "Ring-Tailed Roarers," for his 60-year career publishing tall tales, colorful narratives of the West, and nature books.

Rounds was born in a sod house in the Badlands of South Dakota and grew up there and on a horse ranch in Montana. He studied painting and drawing at the Art Institute in Kansas City, and traveled the country one summer with another art student, Jackson Pollock.

In 1937, Rounds visited North Carolina, married and, after service in World War II, settled here. He has written and/or illustrated 150 books. Among his early ones, Whitey's First Roundup (1942) featured a pint-sized cowboy whose adventures were recorded in many sequels.