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R. J. Reynolds Jr.

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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

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]

Biography

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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

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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

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

See also

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References

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  1. ^ a b Schnakenberg, Heidi. Kid Carolina: R. J. Reynolds Jr., a Tobacco Fortune, and the Mysterious Death of a Southern Icon.
  2. ^ *[1]
  3. ^ 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)
  4. ^ 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.
  5. ^ "Huston House at Butler Plantation". The Georgia Trust. November 7, 2018. Retrieved April 13, 2021.
  6. ^ "Democrats Shift Committee Posts". The New York Times. Vol. XC, no. 30297 (Late City ed.). Associated Press. January 5, 1941. p. 30.
  7. ^ "Reynolds Offers for Party Post". The News and Observer. Vol. CLII, no. 133. United Press. May 13, 1941. p. 12 – via Newspapers.com.
  8. ^ 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.
  9. ^ Childress, Lilian (October 4, 1942). "Town Chatter". Bristol Herald. Vol. 73, no. 15155. p. 11 – via Newspapers.com.
  10. ^ 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.
  11. ^ 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.
  12. ^ "The Tobacco King" Burge, David. Garage Magazine. April 2009.
  13. ^ "iowahawk: The Cigarette City Flash". Iowahawk.typepad.com. September 4, 1979. Retrieved April 28, 2013.
  14. ^ "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.
  15. ^ a b "R. J. Reynolds Jr., Tobacco Heir, Dies", The New York Times, New York City, 1964, retrieved November 23, 2014
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