Early Life
James Dorsey Ball, Jr. was born at St. Peter's Hospital in Charlotte, North Carolina on March 14, 1918 to James Dorsey Ball, Sr. and Lillian Airey Stokes Ball. His father was born in Florida, and his mother was born in New Jersey. He had a younger sister named Corinne Walker Ball. The family lived in North Carolina until the end of 1942 before they moved to 1431 North State Street in Jackson, Mississippi. |
The Ball family's Jackson home.
Education
Ball attended Central High School, Sewanee Military Academy, and Culver Military Academy, and he was active in the ROTC at all of these schools. He was accepted to Millsaps College in 1937. There, he was part of the Pi Kappa Alpha fraternity's Alpha Iota chapter. He also attended Mississippi State University in 1939, where he studied engineering. Ball in Reveille, Mississippi State University's yearbook.
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