Jay F Swanson

Jay Fulbright Swanson began his business career as a director of sales with a Swanson‐owned coffee company in Houston, Tex. Jay was the most physically impressive of the children. Well over six feet tall, he was heavily muscled, the result of years of weight‐lifting since adolescence. According to one of his childhood friends, Jay took up the regimen to stop his older brother Gilbert from pushing him around. Even so, Jay would forever remain an intimidated person. In the late 50's, when Gilbert Sr. sold the coffee company where his younger son was working, Jay returned to Omaha. He lived with his wife within walking distance of North Elmwood Road, and he became a stockbroker—but not a very competent one. He had few clients, and on several occasions, when he caused them to lose money, he had to be persuaded not to replace the loss from his own personal funds. Jay Swanson was a disappointment to his father and felt the disappointment strongly. On the afternoon of Oct. 15, 1975, 34‐year‐old Jay Fulbright Swanson made his way to the attic of his Houston home, lay down on a piece of carpet, carefully folded his coat under his head and ingested a fatal dose of barbiturates. “I'm doing more harm than good being in this world. ... ,” he wrote in a note left beside his body. He added a few lines about the details of the estate. “I want the best tax handling done” were his last words.