“Switzer recalls how his mother, Mary, was a bright, voracious reader. But she lived an isolated life, knowing that many nights her husband was out with other women, and so she escaped into books, and then pills. In late August 1959, Mary came to kiss him goodnight. She was drunk and her eyes were glassed over from barbiturates. After years of watching her struggle, he turned away. She left the room. Thirty seconds later she shot herself dead on the porch. For 30 years, Switzer blamed himself, until he discovered she had left a suicide note.

She had already decided to end her life and was going to kiss Barry goodbye. She was 45.

Switzer’s dad Frank, a bootlegger who sold whiskey in a dry county, was unable to watch him play football his senior year of high school because he was in the state penitentiary.

His dad was accidentally shot by a girlfriend who caught him with another woman and began threatening him with a gun. Frantically trying to get him to a hospital, the girlfriend lost control on a curve, hit a utility pole, and the car exploded, killing them both.”