Wallace johnson holiday inn biography for kids

"In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" - Acts 20:35

Wallace E.

Johnson was born in 1902 into a poor farm family in Edinburg, Mississippi. He learned carpentry as a teenager and later worked in a sawmill, lumber yard and as a building supply salesman. He went into the home-building business in Memphis, Tennessee, at age 38, with a $250 loan.

Within a few years his business was the largest and most successful in the South. In 1952, he joined with Kemmons Wilson to form the motel chain Holiday Inn. Together, they built Holiday Inn into one of the largest motel chains in the world.

In 1966, Johnson and Kemmons built Medicenters of America, Inc.

Wallace Johnson was also a Christian who insisted there be a Bible in each Holiday Inn room.

He said: "The one reason why we've always had an open Bible in eve