H. L. Hunt - Life

Life

Hunt was born near Ramsey, in Carson Township, Fayette County, Illinois, the youngest of eight children. He was named after his father, Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, who was a prosperous farmer-entrepreneur; his mother was Ella Rose (Myers) Hunt.

Hunt was educated at home. As a teenager Hunt traveled to various places before settling in Arkansas, where he was running a cotton plantation by 1912. He had a reputation as a math prodigy and was a gambler. It was said that after his cotton plantation was flooded, he turned his last $100 into more than $100,000, gambling in New Orleans. With his winnings, he purchased oil properties in the neighborhood of El Dorado, Arkansas. He was generous to his employees, who in turn were loyal to him, informing him of rumors of a massive oil field to the south, in Deep East Texas--The East Texas Oil Field. In negotiations over cheese and crackers, at the Adolphus Hotel in Dallas, with the charlatan who accidentally discovered the field--"Dad" Joiner--Hunt secured title to what was then the largest known oil deposit in the world, having agreed to pay only $1,000,000, and protect Mr. Joiner from liability for his many fraudulent transactions surrounding the property. In 1957 Fortune estimated that Hunt had a fortune of between U.S. $400 million and $700 million ($4.5 billion in 2011, adjusted for inflation), and was one of the eight richest people in the United States. J. Paul Getty, who was considered at the time to be the richest private citizen in the world, said of Hunt: "In terms of extraordinary, independent wealth, there is only one man: H.L. Hunt."

His home to the north of White Rock Lake in Dallas was an exact model of Mount Vernon. His first son, Hassie, who was expected to succeed him in control of the family business, was lobotomized in response to increasingly erratic behavior. He outlived his father, and was known, for decades following the procedure, to wander the shores of White Rock Lake cloaked in white sheets, as a ghost. His youngest son, Ray Lee, ultimately inherited the business, and was a major supporter of President George W. Bush. Another son, Lamar, founded the American Football League; with the input of his children as to the name, created the Super Bowl. Two other children, William and Bunker, are famous for having purchased much of the world's silver, in an attempt to corner the market. The specie was loaded into charter planes and flown to vaults in Switzerland. They ultimately owned more silver than any government in the world, before their scheme was discovered and undone. Bunker Hunt was briefly one of the wealthiest men in the world, having discovered and taken title to the Libyan oil fields, before Muammar Gaddafi nationalized the properties.

Hunt married three times, and had fourteen children. His first wife was Lyda Bunker (died 1955), whom he married in Arkansas on November 26, 1914. They had six children, the best-known of whom are Bunker, Lamar and Herbert Hunt. In 1925, Hunt ("HL") married Frania Tye (who was unaware of HL's other wives) in Florida, and they had four children, including Hugh Hunt. When Frania learned of HL's other wives, they divorced in 1942. Hunt then had four more children with his mistress, a Hunt Oil Company secretary named Ruth Ray, whom he married in 1957.

Hunt died, aged 85, in Dallas, Texas. He was buried there in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery.