Born in Johnson City, Tennessee, the daughter of Minister John Ambrose Wood and his wife Leonora, Catherine Marshall was married to Presbyterian minister and Chaplain of the U.S. Senate Peter Marshall. After her husband's death, she wrote his biography, A Man Called Peter, a book that enjoyed tremendous success and became a major motion picture. She followed with numerous devotional books and three novels, two of which - Christy and Julie - became national bestsellers. Christy was also made into an extremely popular television series. Catherine Marshall died in 1983, but the popularity of her inspirational writings continues.