Magnolia

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Magnolia Boat Mfg. Co.

Vicksburg, Mississippi

A 16' Magnolia catamaran powered by twin 70 HP Mercury motors placed first in the 1959 St. Louis - New Orleans stock outboard boat marathon race on the Mississippi River. The boat was driven by Carlton Johnson and Roy B. Fulton of Greenville, MS (Sept. 25, 1959, The Deseret News, Mercury advertisement). Most notably, these fellows beat the winner of the last three of these races, Byron Pool. The other top five placing boats included two Jav Cats, Crownline, and Glass Magic. A Power Cat took sixth. Some insight into this race is provide by Danny Leger, son of Ray Leger: http://www.powercatboat.com/race/story.html

In 1960, Omar Lennen became general manager of Magnolia Boats. At the time of his appointment, F. L. Cappaert was listed as the president of the corporation (The Skipper, Vol. 20, pg. 11). Also in 1960, the company sponsored the 10,000 mile voyage of a 22' outboard Magnolia Family Cruiser model, skippered by Bob Cummings (15) and Andrew Triche (37), from Vicksburg, MS to Fort Bragg, California. Plans included continuing the journey to Anchorage, Alaska (see article below).

Born in Michigan, F.L. Cappaert was president and with his wife Marilynn were sole owners of Magnolia Mobile Homes Manufacturing Company which merged in 1966 in an $18 million dollar deal with Guerdon Industries, Inc. to become one of the nation's largest mobile home builders. Cappaert then held a 70% stake in Guerdon and served as chairman and CEO. A.W. Arnold and A.V. Schaff joined the board of directors of Guerdon, having been Magnolia Homes executives (Aug 16, 1966 New York Times; Aug 24, 1964 The Bonham Daily Favorite). In 1971, Cappaert bought the Diamond REO truck division from White Motor Corp. (July 16, 1971 Wall Street Journal). In 1976, F.L. Cappaert was managing partner of Cappaert Enterprises and sold $10 million of shares in Elpac, Inc., an oil and gas service company he served as chairperson (Jan 31, 1976 New York Times).

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