G. Allen Penniman, Jr.

Graham Allen Penniman, Jr.​ (Texas-Louisiana businessman: Pak-a-Sak convenience stores)
Born	November 1, 1927 Dallas, Texas
Died	April 1, 2020 (aged 92) Baton Rouge, Louisiana​
Spouse	(1) Mary Virginia Crain Penniman (2) Joan Calder Penniman Five children from first marriage: Laurie McDuff Mary Crain Brumback Margaret Boudreaux Graham Penniman Rebecca Penniman Eyre Parents: G. Allen, Sr., and Frances Staten Penniman
Religion	Episcopalian​

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Graham Allen Penniman, Jr. (November 1, 1927 - April 1, 2020), was a businessman and civic figure originally from Dallas, Texas, whose Pak-a-Sak convenience stores were the first to offer all-day, all-week access for shoppers.

Background

A son of Graham Penniman, Sr., and the former Frances Staten, he graduated from Highland Park High School in Dallas and in 1948 completed his studies at Virginia Military Institute in Lexington, Virginia. He later attended Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, at which he graduated in the first class of the Mid-South Executive Development Program. He was a member of Kappa Alpha Order. He spent the second half of his life in Baton Rouge.

Business and civic activities

Penniman's Pak-a-Sak chain was sold in 1971 to Southland Corporation,. It had offered shoppers the first self-service gasoline, popular barbeque sandwiches, and the first Icee frozen drinks. He was a board member of the Council of Profit Sharing Industries and worked to provide profit-sharing for Pak-a-Sak employees. After the merger, Penniman was a liaison and regional manager for Southland Corporation throughout the southeastern United States. In 1982, he founded the Penniman Company to advise his business clients​​ of the fine points of acquiring, managing, and selling companies. He was a mentor and counselor to many young business people.

In civic matters, he was a president of the United Way and sat on the boards of the Baton Rouge Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Convenience Stores, and St. Luke's and St. James Episcopal churches, of which he was a vestryman and served on the school boards operated by his church. He was a board member of Community Coffee, the Capital Savings and Loan Association, City National Bank, Miller Penniman Equipment, and Vermillion, Inc. In 1961, he was named "Young Businessman of the Year." He worked to raise funds for the Episcopal School of Baton Rouge, of which he was a founder and the last surviving member of the original school board.

As a member of the LSU Foundation and raised funds for the School of Arts and Music and the E.J. Ourso School of Business. He was a particular of LSU baseball. A hunter and fisherman, he purchased property in 1975 in Clinton in East Feliciana Parish outside Baton Rouge and developed what he called Penniman Oaks.

Family and death

n 1948, he married the former Mary Virginia Crain, by whom he had five children, Laurie McDuff (husband Al), Mary Crain Brumback (husband Bill), Margaret Boudreaux, Graham Penniman (wife Maureen), and Rebecca Penniman Eyre (husband Robert). After the death of his first wife, he wed in 1977 the former Joan Calder (born 1934), who survives him.

Penniman died at the age of ninety-two in Baton Rouge of natural causes. Because of the coronavirus pandemic, his services were postponed to a later date. He is also survived by a sister, Margaret Penniman Fontaine of Shreveport, Louisiana, and he was preceded in death by a brother, Edgar Erwin Penniman (1933-2015), born in Dallas but a long-term businessman in Pensacola, Florida, who was also active in Pak-a-Sak and on other businesses after the merger.