Making Waco Men Better Since 1852

Vaughn Heady

 

(1920-2017)

Vaughn R Heady, Sr., was born on July 7, 1920 to farm parents in the farming community of Buckner, Parker County TX. Later the family moved to the nearby community of Dennis, TX, which is where he started school at the age of 6 in a two (2) room school house – walking rain or shine. At the age of 12, the family moved to Aledo, TX, where he graduated in 1938 as Valedictorian of his class. While enrolled in Weatherford College in 1939, he met a beautiful young lady by the name of Louise Chandler. They were married on March 8, 1941. Early on he worked in farming and construction. In 1945, he and Louise bought a small grocery store in Poolville, TX. Two (2) years later in 1947, they sold the store and moved back to Weatherford. On January 1, 1948, he stared working as Store Manager for the Southland Corporation, 7-Eleven Store Division. Later that year he was transferred to Ft. Worth; where he managed a store for a few months and then promoted to Supervisor. Later that year, he was transferred to Waco as District Manager of that area. He returned to Ft. Worth as District Manager. In January 1955, he was transferred to Dallas and named Zone Manager of North Texas. This area grew rapidly and he became Vice President of all corporate stores. At the peak of his career, Vaughn had 3800 stores in 23 states, including Western Canada. Along the way he was involved in introducing the 7-Eleven chain in Japan, Hong Kong, Manila, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. After 37 years with Southland he retired in 1985. Today, there are over 60,000 7-Eleven stores worldwide. Joe C. “Jodie” Thompson, one of five founding directors of the Dallas Southland Ice Company and son of 7-Eleven founder, Joe C. Thompson said: “Vaughn was significant in the development and growth of the 7-Eleven stores in Texas, the US and even in Japan. He started with 7-Eleven in Ft. Worth in the 1940’s as just a clerk and eventually ran all of the company operated stores in America and Canada. He and two other men were selected by John and Jere to assist Southland in analyzing the potential for 7-Eleven stores in Japan. And then when the Japanese began operations, he helped them select their early store locations. But mainly he ran the stores in Texas. He trained so many of the future managers of the stores. He also chose many, many of the store locations. Once he shared with me that he could drive without assistance to all 7-Elevens in Texas. We had over 600 stores here at that time. That was a pretty amazing fact. I always referred to him as my mentor. He was respected by everyone who worked under him. He was never called Vaughn, but Mr. Heady. He was a great man.” During this time he became a 32 degree Scottish Rite Mason. He served on the Board of Directors of the Greater Dallas Crime Committee, was a bank director, and served other civic and church activities. He was a member of the Redeemer Bible Church, 721 Easton Rd., Dallas. He established two ranches, where he rode in his favorite cow horse, Brownie & would brand the cattle himself.