Wallace E. Johnson*

Wallace Johnson was born into a poor farm family at Edinburg, Mississippi. He earned his first dollar at age seven by picking cotton. He learned carpentry as a teenager and later worked in a sawmill, at a lumber operation, and at a building supply company. By age 18, he had saved $2,800 and began building houses. Within a few years, his business was the largest and most successful in the South.

In 1953, Johnson joined with Kemmons Wilson Jr., board chairman of Holiday Inn, to build the firm into a nationwide chain. The result was one of the most extraordinary business success stories of modern times. Johnson was later chairman of the board of Medicenters of America, Inc., which he founded in 1966 with Wilson. Johnson headed or held offices in more than 75 corporations.