Karen Spears Zacharias

Born: 1956 in Germany

• She was a journalist and author of 3 nonfiction books

• She lived and worked in Columbus, Muscogee County, GA

• She wrote deeply and clearly about growing up in the wake of her father's death in Vietnam in her 2006 memoir, "After the Flag is Folded: A Daughter Remembers the Father She Lost to War, and the Mother Who Held Her Family Together."

  • Her books since have focused on public religion and faith

• Considers herself a "displaced Georgian" who now lives in Alabama.

• She was born in Germany to a military family

  • She was raised in Columbus from 1969 to 1963, she left with her family but returned there after the death of her father in Vietnam in 1966

• She began working for the Columbus Ledger-Enquirer in 1993 as a reporter and columnist and remained there for six years.

• She published her first book in 1997, Benched: The Memoirs of Judge Rufe McCombs co-written with the Georgia jurist, Judge McCombs.

• Her third book, Where's Your Jesus Now?: How Fear Erodes Our Faith, a darkly humorous, pointed look at the core of religion and belief, was published in 2008.

  • Due shortly is a new book, Will Jesus Buy Me a Doublewide?