Harry L. Crisp, Sr. was born at Aiken, Illinois in Franklin County on December 25, 1901 to Charles Crisp and Laura (Burns) Crisp.

He graduated from Benton High school, and attended Southern Illinois University.

He began his business career in his father’s general merchandise store in Franklin County, and in 1926 started a poultry and hatchery business called Marion Poultry and Hatchery located at 1005 S. Court St. (This is where the wallpaper store is located next to the railroad tracks at the intersection of Court and Boyton.)

Harry married the former Violette Fairless of Marion in Marion October 26, 1927.

In the 1930 census, Harry was aged 28 and Violette 27; they had no children yet and according to the census were living at the same location as the hatchery at 1005 S. Court. The census indicates that they did not own the property then and were paying $10 a month rent. Harry is listed as the owner of a hatchery and Violette a stenographer for the hatchery.

Harry and Violet operated Crisp’s Hatchery in Marion until 1935.

That year he went into the soft drink bottling business. He started a bottling operation in a building on West White Street near N. Market St., and later moved it to the building at South Court and Boyton Streets where he had operated his hatchery. After he obtained the Pepsi Cola franchise for southern Illinois in 1935 the growth of the bottling business was phenomenal.

Not discouraged by a fire which destroyed much of his Pepsi-Cola Bottling plant on South Court Street, he purchased the former Davis Ford agency building at 700 N. Market St. on the corner of West White and North Market Streets where new equipment was installed, and the business greatly expanded.

By 1935, the couple had purchased and moved into a home at 908 N. Market St. next door to Jean Burkhart at 906 who ran the Burkhart Shoe Store at 600 Public Square.

In the 1940 census, Harry and Violette now have two children, Harry Crisp II, aged 4 and Carole Crisp, aged 6. Their home on Market St. is owned by them and he valued it at $10,000. Harry is listed as a wholesale beverage manufacturer.

In 1970, the firm held Pepsi Cola franchises in five states and subsequently acquired Dr. Pepper and 7-Up franchises also. Crisp opened a $2 million Pepsi-Cola Bottling Co. in Marion in 1969.

Crisp’s business activities were recognized outside his own field. In 1974, he was honored as the “Top Banana” at the international banana festival at Fulton, Kentucky.

In 1970, the Marion Chamber of Commerce nominated him “Marion’s Man of the Year”.

He served 20 years on the Marion City Council, being elected City Commissioner in 1931 and Mayor four years later in 1935 until 1947, being the first mayor ever elected to three consecutive terms.

During his tenure as a city official he promoted the standing of Marion. He had headed the United Fund and other community projects. He assisted in campaigns that resulted in the establishment of the Veterans Hospital and Marion Memorial Hospital and the U.S. federal penitentiary.

He was a member of the Rotary Club and Elks Lodge No. 800 and was 32^nd Degree Mason. He was presented with the Masonic 50 year pin by the Thompsonville Masonic Lodge.

For many years he was on the Williamson County Fair Board.

In the late 1940s he engaged briefly in the newspaper business, purchasing the old Marion Evening Post which he discontinued in 1948 when he sold the printing plant and building to the Marion Daily Republican.

Of their two children two children, Harry L. Crisp II, served as vice-president and general manager of the bottling company under his father and married Rosemary Berkel and Carole became Mrs. Carole Knutzen, wife of E.W. Knutzen, Jr. of Warrenton, Virginia.

Crisp died at his home in Marion, at 10 P.M. Sunday, November 30, 1975. Although the former mayor had suffered previous heart attacks, his death was sudden and unexpected. He and his wife lived at Crisp Acres on old Route 13 just west of Interstate Route 57 which runs between Crisp Acres and the Veterans Administration Hospital.

Besides his widow and their son and daughter and his sister, Mrs. R.E. (Helen) Watson of Carbondale, the deceased was survived by six granddaughters and four grandsons and two nieces, Mrs. Fred (Betty Jane) Darby, Kansas City, Kansas and Laura Lee Watson Buck, Casper, Wyoming.

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(Extracted from Marion Daily Republican articles and Federal Census Records; Compiled by Sam Lattuca on 05/22/2013)