"I plowed cotton, corn, peanuts, you name it. Picked cotton," Howard says, describing his early life. He was born in Bivins, Texas, and graduated from high school in nearby Atlanta in 1939. He worked for Texas & Pacific Railroad in Shreveport until he joined the Army Air Forces. Howard recalls he weighed 142 pounds when he went into the service. Assigned to the 460^th Engineers, he landed at Oran, North Africa, where his unit delivered supplies to the front. After remaining in North Africa for "about fifteen months," Howard made the invasion of southern France. He remembers a replacement from near his hometown "who was with us one-half day on the front lines" before he was killed. Howard remained in Europe forty-four months, and was in Antwerp, Belgium when the war ended. He was discharged at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio and returned to Texas & Pacific Railroad. Howard also graduated from Centenary College in 1952. He sold cars, and then joined Minnesota Mutual Life Insurance, for whom he worked for twenty-five years. He retired in December of 1986.