Vernon Willingham Scott: A Life Well Lived

Vernon Willingham Scott died on Jan 4, 2010 at the age of 94 in San Antonio, Texas

Vernon was born March 28, 1915 to Frances Willingham Scott and Thaddeus William Scott in Eupora, Mississippi, the third of seven children. He attended Wood Junior College, and Mississippi State University where he earned a degree in agriculture education. He was also a founding member of the Mississippi State chapter of Kappa Sigma fraternity.

Vernon left his native Mississippi to teach vocational agriculture at Forest, Louisiana. There he became the proud owner of his first airplane, a used 45 horsepower open cockpit American Eaglet. This was the beginning of a lifelong love of aviation, which included a brief stint as a barnstormer. Among other aerobatics, he tossed rolls of toilet paper out and flew through them in order to “draw” his crowds. For $1.00, the adventurous got to fly a complete circle of the pasture.

He left the teaching world to join the Farm Security Administration as a parish supervisor. He came to Arkansas when he was promoted to Farm Management Specialist and moved to the regional office in Little Rock. During World War II he served as a Lieutenant JG on a PT boat in the South Pacific.

After the war he took over reorganization and management of Tillar & Company, a family operated farm in Tillar, Arkansas and built it into a vertically integrated operation of cotton, rice, soybeans, timber, cattle and fish farming. When he arrived mules were the order of the day. When he left 41 years later, he turned over a successful modern enterprise.

Vernon was extensively involved in farm organizations. He was president of the Arkansas Agricultural Council, president of the American Cotton Producers Association and served on the boards of the Arkansas Soybean Association, the American Soybean Association and Development Foundation, the National Cotton Council, and Cotton Incorporated. He also served as an advisor to the Secretary of Agriculture on the cotton research and advisory committee. His many honors include selection as the Progressive Farmer Man of the Year, and induction into the Arkansas Agricultural Hall of Fame in 1997.

Vernon was valued in his local community as well, serving on the Tillar School Board for thirty years, and as an elder in the First Presbyterian Church of McGehee.

Vernon married Margery McGowan in 1941 and they had one child, Sharon. Margery died in an automobile accident in 1944. Vernon married Marjorie Hassel Glenn on Jan 3, 1948. They had two children, John and Sarah.

Vernon and Marjorie were an exceptionally devoted couple. In their later years, they traveled extensively with the State Department People-to-People program, playing tennis with new-found friends in Scandinavia, Poland, Russia, Spain, Morocco, and Kenya.

Vernon was a wonderful and inspirational father who led by example. He was known and respected as a peacemaker whose moral compass held steady and true. He’ll be remembered for his strength and wisdom, his sustaining faith, for the twinkle in his eye, his warm smile, his clever, unmatched wit and his incredible patience with life.