Sonny as a young child.

As Mr. Mississippi State.

Born and reared in Meridian, Mississippi, Sonny Montgomery's early life helped set the course for a distinguished career. His father died at an early age when his only child was just 10. Sonny and his mother struggled like other familes during the Depression, but he had an otherwise normal life growing up in the Magnolia State. He spent his sophomore, junior, and senior years of high school at a military preparatory school in Chattanooga, graduating in 1939 from the McCallie School.

Sonny enrolled in Mississippi State College to pursue a degree in business. There -- at an institution his great-grandfather, Col. W.B. Montgomery, had helped establish decades earlier -- Sonny furthered his military skills in the ROTC and gained his first taste of politics. Following in the footsteps of the legendary John C. Stennis, who had preceded him at Mississippi State by 20 years, Sonny was elected both president of the student body and "Mr. Mississippi State."