Stuckey

the long version

Stuckey is the Horatio Alger story of the life of Williamson Sylvester Stuckey. Born on a farm near Eastman in Dodge County, Georgia, in 1909, he came of age at the dawning of the Great Depression. Dropping out of the University of Georgia, he went home to the farm to plow a mule. He borrowed $35 from his grandmother and built a roadside shack to sell pecans and, later, candy. Thus was the inauspicious beginning of a multi-million dollar chain that was eventually to stretch from coast to coast and number 350 stores. Stuckey, as he was known by everyone, never forgot his humble beginnings. When convenience and fast-food stores were still decades away, Stuckey was incorporating the one-stop shopping concept in his stores. When integration in the South was still years away, black tourists planned their travels so they could use restrooms at Stuckey stores. He also pioneered the use of franchisees to manage his stores. This biography tells how Stuckey lifted himself by his bootstraps to see his name become a legendary household word.