Wallace Fowler

Wallace Fowler, the Jonesboro businessman who built and sold multiple banks and led robust KFC and Taco Bell franchises, died Wednesday May 4 2022. He was 87. His wife, Jama, died two weeks earlier at age 85. Wallace Fowler grew up in the tiny Mississippi County community of Manila, where his father was the school superintendent. The fifth of six children, he graduated from Oak Grove High School near Paragould. He wasn’t a college man; he joined the U.S. Army and, because two of his brothers were dentists, he volunteered as a dental lab technician for three years. He married Jama in 1953, and he completed his military obligation in Germany. Fowler worked nearly a year at Dillard’s Inc. and then went to Haverty’s, where management experience in Dallas and Florida prepared him to be his own boss. He returned to his northeast Arkansas to purchase his aunt’s furniture store in Jonesboro, later buying furniture stores in Batesville, Paragould and Walnut Ridge. In 1965, Fowler and some partners began purchasing Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises until they had more than 90 outlets and were the fourth-largest franchisee in the country. In 1985, more than 80 of the KFCs were sold to Scott’s Food Service Inc. for $37 million — about $90 million in today’s dollars — and Fowler began buying and selling bank franchises. He later bought back restaurants eventually chaining up more than 80 KFCs and Taco Bells, now managed by son Chris Fowler. Wallace and Jama Fowler were also philanthropists, giving away millions — especially to Arkansas State University and the University of Arkansas.