 A native of Louisiana, Eugene F. Callahan had a lifelong association with the state.He kept a home in the capital, Baton Rouge, where he began his designing career in the 1940s as a student at Louisiana State University, and his film assignment was as production designer on "Steel Magnolias", lensed in Natchitoches in 1989.Callahan was a prolific contributor to early television, starting with the first full-schedule broadcast season in 1948–49.