R. J. Reynolds Jr.

Richard Joshua Reynolds Jr.[1] (April 4, 1906 – December 14, 1964) was an American entrepreneur and the son of R.J. Reynolds, founder of the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Company.[2][3]

R. J. Reynolds Jr.
Treasurer of the Democratic National Committee
In office
January 4, 1941  October 4, 1942
Preceded byOliver A. Quayle Jr
Succeeded byEdwin W. Pauley
Mayor of Winston-Salem, North Carolina
In office
May 12, 1941  June 1942
Preceded byJames R Fain
Succeeded byJ. Wilbur Crews
Personal details
Born
Richard Joshua Reynolds Jr.

(1906-04-04)April 4, 1906
Winston-Salem, North Carolina, U.S.
DiedDecember 14, 1964(1964-12-14) (aged 58)
Lucerne, Switzerland

Biography

Reynolds was an American businessman, politician, activist and philanthropist.

In 1934, he acquired Sapelo Island on the Atlantic coast of Georgia[4] and, following the death of Tillinghast L'Hommedieu Huston in 1938, the Butler Island Plantation[5]

Reynolds was appointed treasurer of the Democratic National Committee in early 1941 before being elected mayor of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, a few months later.[6][7] He took a leave of absence from his mayoral duties and resigned his treasurer post in 1942 when he began military service as a lieutenant at the Naval Combat Intelligence School in Quonset Point, Rhode Island.[8][9]

As a businessman, he did not work at R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company except as a young teenager. and was involved in creating Delta Air Lines. He was also a yachtsman (having the 125 ton ketch Aries built for him in 1952[10]), pilot, aviator, and philanthropist.[11]

Family life

Reynolds had four sons with his first wife, socialite Elizabeth McCaw Dillard: Richard Joshua Reynolds III (1933–1994), John Dillard Reynolds (1935–1990), Zachary Taylor Reynolds (1938–1979),[12][13][14] and William Neal Reynolds (1940–2009). From his second marriage to the Hollywood stage and movie actress, Marianne O'Brien, his sons were: the activist Patrick Reynolds, and Michael Randolph Reynolds (1947–2004).[1] His third marriage was to Muriel Marston Greenough, the younger sister of Anthony Heselton Marston, who was a major Canadian industrialist.[15] His first three marriages ended in divorce. His fourth marriage, in 1961, was to Dr. Annemarie Schmitt, a psychiatrist.[15]

Death

Reynolds was diagnosed with emphysema in 1960 and died four years later in Switzerland.

See also

References

  1. Schnakenberg, Heidi. Kid Carolina: R. J. Reynolds Jr., a Tobacco Fortune, and the Mysterious Death of a Southern Icon.
  2. Gillespie, Michele. Katharine and R.J. Reynolds: Partners of Fortune in the Making of the New South (University of Georgia Press; 2012) 381 pages; dual biography of R.J. and his much younger wife (1880–1924)
  3. Sullivan, Buddy (December 2, 2019). "Sapelo Island". New Georgia Encyclopedia. Athens GA: University of Georgia Press. Archived from the original on December 30, 2021. Retrieved February 4, 2022.
  4. "Huston House at Butler Plantation". The Georgia Trust. November 7, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  5. "Democrats Shift Committee Posts". The New York Times. Vol. XC, no. 30297 (Late City ed.). Associated Press. January 5, 1941. p. 30.
  6. "Reynolds Offers for Party Post". The News and Observer. Vol. CLII, no. 133. United Press. May 13, 1941. p. 12 via Newspapers.com.
  7. Williams, Robert E. (June 7, 1942). "Political Talk Centering on 1944 Primary Contests". The News and Observer. Vol. CLIV, no. 158. p. 9 via Newspapers.com.
  8. Childress, Lilian (October 4, 1942). "Town Chatter". Bristol Herald. Vol. 73, no. 15155. p. 11 via Newspapers.com.
  9. Schnakenberg, Heidi (2010). Kid Carolina: R. J. Reynolds Jr., a Tobacco Fortune, and the Mysterious Death of a Southern Icon. ISBN 9781599952697. Retrieved August 3, 2022.
  10. Patrick Reynolds; Tom Shachtman (1989), The Gilded Leaf: Triumph, Tragedy, and Tobacco: Three Generations of the R. J. Reynolds Family and Fortune, Boston: Little, Brown and Co.
  11. "The Tobacco King" Burge, David. Garage Magazine. April 2009.
  12. "iowahawk: The Cigarette City Flash". Iowahawk.typepad.com. September 4, 1979. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
  13. "Zach Reynolds, heir to the R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Fortune, lived the American Dream". www.zachreynolds.com. Archived from the original on May 27, 2010.
  14. "R. J. Reynolds Jr., Tobacco Heir, Dies", The New York Times, New York City, 1964, retrieved November 23, 2014
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