KemmonsWilson1
In 1996, Memphis businessman Kemmons Wilson published his autobiography, called Half Luck and Half Brains. But he was just being modest. It took an awful lot of brainpower to accomplish all that he did.
He got his start in the world of business by delivering prescriptions (by bicycle) for a local druggist, then started making a good bit of money supplying popcorn roasters to movie theaters. That convinced him to get more involved in these ventures, and so he opened his own theaters; among them was the well-known Summer Drive-In, and quite a few others around town.
Everyone by now knows the story of his family vacation to Washington, D.C., where he had such trouble finding decent lodging for his family that he came back to Memphis and developed a chain of clean and efficient motels that came to be called Holiday Inns. Perhaps you've heard of them?
Along the way, he also purchased the Continental Trailways bus company, bought an interest in the Memphis Tams basketball team, and later opened a separate chain of motels called Wilson World. He was always working on something, up until his death in 2003.
So it's only natural that a man with a keen business sense, and a flair for self-promotion, would have a rather distinctive gravestone, and here it is, located right by one of the major roads in Forest Hill Cemetery in Midtown. (Wilson always had a knack for finding the best locations for anything he was involved in).
The engraved stonework includes the so-called "Great Sign," one of the best neon signs of all time. The only thing disappointing about this large tombstone, which marks the final resting place of Kemmons and his beloved wife, Dorothy?
Too bad it doesn't light up. I know that would have pleased him to no end.
