The year after his autobiography was released, William Alexander Percy died. He served in France with the American 37th Division during World War I, rising to the rank of captain and receiving the Croix de Guerre with gold star. In the company of his father, U.S. Senator LeRoy Percy was a key figure in Greenville's successful 1922 battle against the Ku Klux KKK, as well as the local Red Cross unit during the devastating Mississippi River floods of 1927. He wrote four collections of poems and worked as a lawyer in Greenville until his death.