Jim Harrison (January 12, 1936 – June 18, 2016) was an American artist and writer whose work is known for chronicling earlier twentieth-century rural life.
When he was six years old, his father took a job with American Telephone and Telegraph Company, and his mother worked as a Southern Bell switchboard operator in Denmark, South Carolina.
[3] The elderly gentleman taught him how to letter, and for several summers the two traveled the rural areas around Denmark painting Coca-Cola bulletins on the sides of barns and country stores.
[4] In 1960, Harrison began an eleven-year high school coaching career,[3] which included working for the American League baseball team the Cleveland Indians as a part-time talent scout from 1965 through 1970.
[citation needed] In 1970, he declined an offer to join the Furman University football coaching staff[4] and returned to his hometown of Denmark, South Carolina, to pursue a career as an artist.
In 2008, he was honored by former South Carolina governor Mark Sanford with the Order of the Palmetto Award for his service as a citizen of the state.
The honor was bestowed for Harrison's work as a professional artist, the prestige he had brought to the University and the state, and his contributions to charitable organizations.