Carroll Shelby

Carroll Hall Shelby (born January 11, 1923) is an American retired automotive designer and racing driver. He is most well known for making Mustangs for Ford Motor Company known as Mustang Cobras which he has done since 1965. His company Shelby American Inc., founded in 1962, and currently sells modified Ford vehicles, as well as performance parts. Carroll Shelby was born on January 11, 1923 in Leesburg, Texas, to Warren Hall Shelby, a rural mail carrier, and his wife Eloise Lawrence Shelby. Shelby suffered heart valve leakage problems by age 7 and spent most of his childhood in bed. By age 14, Shelby's health improved and he was subsequently declared to have "outgrown" his health problems. Shelby's first wife was Jeanne Fields; they married on December 18, 1943. Their daughter Sharon Anne Shelby was born a year later on December 27, 1944. They had two more children; sons named Michael Hall (born November 2, 1946) and Patrick Burke (born October 23, 1947).