Biography of James Prentice DeRossitt, St Francis County, AR

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Submitted by: Paul V Isbell
        Date: 19 Nov 2008
Copyright.  All rights reserved.
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The youngest but most active member of Fussell-Graham-Alderson is Prentice
DeRossitt, Vice President and General Manager, under whose intelligent and
carefully planned direction the firm has truly made its greatest advances in the
past few years. Prentice is the third generation of the family to be associated
with the company as his great-grandfather, Louis Rollwage, and his maternal
grandfather, John W. Alderson, were two of the business' founders. His father,
James DeRossitt, prominent St. Francis County planter, still is Sect-Treasurer.
His paternal grandfather, the late Frank DeRossitt, came to this county in 1891
to eventually become a most prosperous and widely known farmer. Prentice, the
son of James and Louise (Alderson) DeRossitt, was born in Forrest City Dec. 27,
1923. After graduation from the Forrest City High School, he attended Hendrix
College and later received a B. S. Degree in Business Administration at the
University of Arkansas in June, 1946, after which he joined Fussell-Graham-
Alderson. On Aug. 15, 1946 he married Miss Alice Macmillan, daughter of Alfred
and Vera (Terry) Macmillan, of El Dorado, and this union has been blessed with
two children. The current building on Washington and Broadway was opened in
1928, where the original Rollwage & Co. had stood. In 1947, the firm stopped
handling hardware, appliances, feed and seed, etc. In their place are the latest
nationally advertised lines whose ancestry, too, was as prominent as that of
FGA. In 1949 air conditioning was added. Present officers of FGA: J. W.
Alderson, Sr.-Pres.; James Fussell, Sr.-Vice Pres.; Prentice DeRossitt-Vice
Pres. and General Manager; and James DeRossitt-Sect. /Treas. Among others
associated withe FGA, the late VP Murray C. Hambleton; Director E. B. Smith;
Sect/Treas. Talmalge Christopher and Wilber Alley..


SOURCE:
HISTORY of ST. FRANCIS COUNTY, ARKANSAS, 1954 - Robert W. Chowning

Copyright, with Permission: Weston McCollum Lewey, Publisher
-Times Herald Publishing-Forrest City, Arkansas