Benjamin H. Wooten*

Benjamin Wooten was born in 1894 and raised on a small farm near Timpson, Texas. As a youth, he helped scratch out a living from the farm and wore homemade clothes. He picked cotton to help the family income, and when he was old enough to handle a saw, he worked with his father, cutting cordwood for cotton gin operators.

Wooten's first regular job was with a pipeline surveying crew. He paid for his first pair of trousers by picking and selling peanuts. He trudged three miles to a country store with a rooster under his arm and sold it for 15 cents. After graduating from North Texas State University, Wooten served in the U.S. Army, and then was a school teacher for a short period after World War I.

In 1945, Wooten became vice president of the Republic National Bank of Dallas. In 1950, he became president of the First National Bank of Dallas.