Paper Hero is a history of Leon Hale's youth, from birth in the small town of Stephenville through a series of homes in various partS of west Texas, and, finally, his college days at Texas Tech and combat duty in World War II. From his earliest days, Leon Hale was a daydreamer who invented wonderful drama out of mundane events. And of course he cast himself in the leading roles of these Walter Mitty-like dreams. He became aware early in life, he writes, "that it was my purpose to be heroic now and then." Such as the time - he was only six - that he rescued his family from a burning house (no matter that his sisters remember it differently). And the time he played the trumpet with his pal Harry James at the Aragon Ballroom on the West Coast. And the day he bought his mother the house she had always wanted. Wishes all. Shipped the next day 4/14/24