Obituaries

-- Casual Living, 2/1/2008 12:00:00 AM

Tom Jernigan, who founded Winston Furniture and several other businesses, died Jan. 4 in Birmingham, Ala., after a yearlong fight with leukemia. He was 84.

Jernigan started his career by developing playground equipment. In the mid-1950s, he was one of the founders of Plantation Patterns, a wrought iron furniture manufacturer. He also founded office furniture manufacturer United Chair in 1969 and early convenience store chain Quick Marts in 1973. In 1976, he founded Winston Furniture, an aluminum and wrought iron outdoor casual furniture maker. He was chairman and CEO of Marathon Corp., a maker of commercial and industrial garbage compaction equipment, at the time of his death.

Over the years, Jernigan created endowments at Birmingham-Southern College, Samford University, the University of Alabama at Birmingham and the University of Alabama, as well as funding medical research and college and nursing scholarships.

The HammockSource's National Sales Manager Bert Singleton, 44, died on Dec. 20, 2007, after a battle with cancer.

Singleton had served as national sales manager of the Greenville, N.C.-based hammock manufacturer since February 1998, after four years as a regional sales manager. He joined The HammockSource as an industrial engineer in February 1987 after earning his engineering degree at N.C. State University.