6 minute read
An Armchair Expert
By Carolanne Roberts
Photo by Russ Houston
It’s a toss-up. Celebrate the 51-year (and counting) career of Hassell Franklin, Chairman and CEO of Franklin Corporation, one of the nation’s largest privately held furniture companies, or dive into the ultra-impressive list of Franklin’s titles, leadership roles, industry involvement and accolades that could easily fill every available inch of this story.
So let’s do a bit of both – and throw in an Elvis story or two, which have nothing to do with the career but rank as good memories, nonetheless.
To start, consider this. How many of us have fulfilled our childhood “what will I be when I grow up” prophecies? Hassell Franklin, whose goal was ambitious, nailed his dream on the first try.
“Growing up on a small farm in Lee County, working in the fields, I always knew I wanted to be a successful person in business,” he recalls. “I knew a couple of successful businesspeople from church and, as a teenager, dreamed of owning my own business someday.”
The focus never wavered. Eyeing the watermelons his father sold or gave away to neighbors, the young Franklin petitioned to erect a watermelon stand along the road.
“It was very successful for several summers,” says Franklin. “I made a few bucks.”
He remembered those bucks later while holding down an eight-hour factory shift at night and attending Itawamba Community College in Fulton. He then transferred into the business program at Mississippi State for his last two years of college, while delivering the Memphis Press-Scimitar to 40 doorsteps each evening.
The furniture idea was down the road, but the concept of success drove him hard.
“I realized I needed to break things down. I’d think, ‘I can’t solve an issue unless I break it into elements. I can’t get there unless I cross this bridge, then cross that next bridge to get to the other side.’ That train of thought has become natural to me in my work.”
He continues, “It gave me the realization that problems are only as big as you make them. If you break them down, they’re always solvable.”
Franklin is a 1959 graduate in Industrial Management which, at the time, included a business and engineering focus.
From State, Franklin traveled to the U.S. Army Armor School, spending 14 weeks studying armor, tanks and artillery in Fort Knox, KY. In the Army he achieved the rank of captain. Later in the National Guard, he served as commanding officer of the Pontotoc unit that guarded James Meredith in 1962 as he entered the University of Mississippi as its first African American student.
Two years later, with a wife and child at home, it was time to enter the business world.
After working with a locally-based furniture operation to build it up, Franklin took stock and concluded, “I didn’t want to work for others.”
In 1970, armed with experience in all levels of furniture manufacturing, he opened the doors of Franklin Corp. to make recliners.
“I was excited and never nervous opening my company,” he shares. “We made a profit the first nine months we were in business.”
He also observes that the furniture industry in Mississippi was “dated in their thought processes and ways of doing business. I was this new guy who was trying out new things – and some of them worked.”
For instance, rather than buy metal mechanisms needed to manufacture his products from a company that held a monopoly on the mechanisms, he established his own mechanism plant. Through forward thinking, the founder expanded his scope to sell his goods internationally. Franklin Corp., located in Houston, MS, is a proud corporate citizen and the town’s largest employer with 1,100 employees.
Throughout the years, Franklin has served as President and board member of the American Furniture Manufacturers Association, which today boasts nearly 11,000 national brands on file. He has served on boards such as BancorpSouth, North Mississippi Medical Center, the CREATE Foundation, the Commission on the Future of Northeast Mississippi, the Mississippi Economic Council, the American Home Furnishings Alliance’s Furniture Foundation, Trace Regional Hospital, Leadership Chickasaw, Houston’s Habitat for Humanity and more. He was elected to the Mississippi Business Hall of Fame in 2003.
At Mississippi State, Franklin has been on the boards of the Development Foundation, the Athletic Foundation and the Bulldog Club, serving as President for the latter two. He was named the Mississippi State University National Alumnus of the Year in 1995. In the fall of 2020, he received an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree in recognition of lifetime achievements and of longtime major support of the University.
At MSU’s fall 2020 commencement, an honorary Doctor of Public Service degree was presented to Franklin (left), shown here with Dr. David Shaw, Provost and Executive Vice President.
Photo by Beth Wynn
Franklin Corp. is a family affair. Sons Mark and Hank Franklin serve as President and Senior Vice President, respectively. With the company’s four lines – motion, stationary, recliners and medical lift chairs – the Houston facilities are humming.
Remembering his own joy in innovating as he built his company, Franklin is delighted that grandson Rob Franklin is also proudly in the family business.
“He’s brought so much into the company already,” the grandfather says of the 2013 MSU finance graduate, who also holds an MBA from Southern Methodist University. “I’ve told him, ‘Rob, you’re going to take this company to the next level.’”
Before coming home to Franklin Corp., Rob worked with Toyota North America’s Product System Support Center in Texas.
“I like to listen to him, hearing a lot of new ideas, many of which we will be incorporating into our system,” says Franklin. “He’s married and has a son, and guess what – they named him after me!”
Hassell Franklin (first row at left) and his sixth-grade classmates numbered Elvis Presley (third row, right end) among their own.
Photo courtesy of Franklin Corp.
Now, about those promised Elvis stories. Indeed, Hassell Franklin sat for a whole school year – 6th grade in Tupelo – in front of the future King.
“When we’d go out to recess, Elvis would sit on the concrete steps with his guitar while we’d all play football or baseball. Nobody really went over to listen to him – he was just another kid,” says Franklin, who shares a black-and-white class picture that shows Elvis in overalls, standing near the teacher.
He admits to making the future star cry due to a harmless kid prank.
“I thought I was the teacher’s pet, but she called me up in front of the class and said, ‘Don’t you ever make Elvis cry again. If you do, I am going to put your finger in the pencil sharpener!’” he recalls. “I went back and put my arms around him, and he started smiling. He laughed and said everything was okay – we were friends.”
Much later, during Army training, Franklin took some unbelieving fellow soldiers to an Elvis event – the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport – and the group turned from doubtful to delighted upon meeting the singer backstage for a good chat.
“After that I was a hero, ‘Elvis’ buddy,’” he says.
Many would count the Presley connection high among life’s achievements – but not Franklin. His pride remains with the company he created and having become the successful business figure he set out to be.
“Once you commit to yourself, you can do what it takes,” he says. “That’s been my career.”
