James L. Clayton Sr. (born March 2, 1934) is an American businessman, investor, and philanthropist. He founded Clayton Homes in 1966 and built it into the United States' largest producer and seller of manufactured housing, a formerly publicly traded company that was sold to Berkshire Hathaway in 2003 for $1.7 billion.[1]
Early life
James L. Clayton was born in 1934 in Finger, Tennessee. His father was a sharecropper. As a child, he aspired to become a country music singer.[1] After high school, he went to Memphis to attend Memphis State and perform in honky tonks.[2] After becoming ill at the end of the first year, he transferred[2]