Hank Aaron

Aaron was a star student athlete in football and baseball, playing semi-pro in the latter sport while still in high school. He was later signed by the Indianapolis Clowns and helped lead that team to win the 1952 Negro League World Series. That same year he was signed by the Boston (later Milwaukee, then Atlanta) Braves. He dominated both Braves farm teams he was on, and by 1954 was in the major leagues. Mr. Aaron presently serves as Senior Vice President of the Atlanta National League Baseball Club, Inc., a professional sports organization, as Chairman of 755 Restaurant Corp., a quick service restaurant company, and as a director of Medallion Financial Corp., a specialty finance company, along with a number of other private business interests. Aaron developed a number of auto dealerships and still owns Hank Aaron Toyota. He is a long-time Church's and Popeye's restaurant franchisee and also operates Krispy Kreme franchises in Atlanta and Columbus, Georgia. Aaron sits on the board of Retail Ventures, Inc., Medallion Financial Corporation, Atlanta Technical Institute, the Atlanta Braves, and Atlanta Falcons. He is a member of the Board of Governors for Boys and Girls Clubs of America and is a member of the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center. With his wife Billye, he is the founder of the Hank Aaron Chasing the Dream Foundation. In 2002 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Aaron’s survivors include his wife, Billye; two sons, Lary and Henry Jr., and two daughters, Dorinda and Gaile, all of whom he had with his first wife, Barbara (the marriage ended in divorce); and his daughter Ceci, from Billye Aaron’s first marriage. His brother Tommie, who played intermittently for the Braves for six seasons after his rookie year as a regular, died of leukemia in 1984 at age 45.