William Pryor: “Johnnie Bryan Hunt died a couple of days ago in Arkansas. I just spoke with his wife a few moments ago. As always, she…”

“Johnnie Bryan Hunt died a couple of days ago in Arkansas. I just spoke with his wife a few moments ago. As always, she was delightful, and she was very upbeat and very positive and really appreciated all the prayers and all the well-wishes she has received from Arkansas and from around the country over the last couple of days. Yesterday, we lost a great American and a great Arkansan and a great example to us all. Johnnie Bryan Hunt was born in Cleburne County, AK, in 1927 during the Great Depression. He left school at the age of 12 and went to work for his uncle in the sawmill. We were just talking about the timber industry in our State. He went to work for his uncle in the sawmill just to help the family get by, as many Americans did back in those days. He served in the U.S. Army. During his early career, he was a farmer, he was a lumber salesman, he was an auctioneer, and a truckdriver. Then he invented his own business. It was called a rice hull business. He got the rice hulls over in the eastern part of the State and trucked them over to the western part of the State to make 'poultry bedding,' as he called it, out of the rice hulls. That venture did not work out exactly the way he wanted it to. His first trucking company, which he formed as part of that and shortly thereafter, failed. He lost about $19,000 in that first venture. But like many Americans, J.B. Hunt didn't quit. He went back to the drawing board. He kept working. He knew he had the ability.…”