In article >,
maxine in ri > wrote:

> Frank Perdue, at age 82.


84.

<http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory?id=632488>

Frank Perdue Dies at 84 After Illness

Frank Perdue, Chairman of Perdue Farms Executive Committee, Dies at 84
After a Brief Illness

By FOSTER KLUG

The Associated Press

Apr. 1, 2005 - Frank Perdue, who transformed a backyard egg business
into one of the nation's largest poultry processors using the folksy
slogan, "It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken," has died.

He died Thursday after a brief illness, Perdue Farms Inc. said Friday.
He was 84.

....
In building his poultry business, Perdue was the consummate entrepreneur
and workaholic, who would put in 18 hours a day and get by on three or
four hours' sleep. He had a cot in his office and often spent the night
there, even though his home was 50 yards away.

Perdue Farms' expansion in the 1970s was rapid, but it also sowed the
seeds of worker discontent. The company opened new plants in rural,
often poor areas of the South, where labor was cheap and government
regulations lax.

Inevitably, union activism sprung up, which Perdue sought to suppress.

In 1986, Perdue told to a presidential commission that he had twice
unsuccessfully sought help from a reputed New York crime boss to put
down union activities, actions he later said he regretted deeply.
....

Copyright 2005 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material
may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright 2005 ABC News Internet Ventures

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