Jesse Ely Wills (1899–1997) was an American businessman and poet. He was the chairman of the

National Life and Accident Insurance Company The National Life and Accident Insurance Company is a former life insurance company that was based in Nashville, Tennessee. National Life and Accident began in 1900 as the National Sick and Accident Association, a mutual company. It was reorgan ...

and the author of four poetry collections. National Life was founded by his father,

William Ridley Wills William Ridley Wills (March 4, 1897 – September 8, 1957) was an American novelist, poet, and journalist. Born in Brownsville, Tennessee, he was a graduate of Vanderbilt University and a member of the "Fugitives (poets), Fugitives" a literary m ...

in 1902. Jesse Wills began working there at age 23 when he was a student at Vanderbilt University and remained with the company his entire career. In 1925, the company created radio station WSM to help promote their business and built a studio on the fifth floor of their building. National Life Insurance and station WSM achieved international recognition in creating the "''

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a weekly American country music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio "barn dance" on WSM. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a divis ...

'' " which was broadcast nationwide and became the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history. In 1922, while a student at Vanderbilt, Wills was a member of the " Fugitives," an influential literary movement. The Fugitives wrote and published poetry, and included notable writers Robert Penn Warren, Allen Tate,

John Crowe Ransom John Crowe Ransom (April 30, 1888 – July 3, 1974) was an American educator, scholar, literary critic, poet, essayist and editor. He is considered to be a founder of the New Criticism school of literary criticism. As a faculty member at Kenyon ...

and Donald Davidson. The group published the ''Fugitive Magazine'' between 1922 and 1925. Two of the members (Warren and Tate) later became

United States Poets Laureate The Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress—commonly referred to as the United States Poet Laureate—serves as the official poet of the United States. During their term, the poet laureate seeks to raise the national cons ...

Selected works

References

1977 deaths Businesspeople from Tennessee People from Nashville, Tennessee Poets from Tennessee 1899 births 20th-century American businesspeople {{US-bio-stub