I had been doing some reading on the early supporters of Pat Robertson's 700 club and found some notable contributors that included Holly Coors, wife of the beer magnate and H.L. Hunt, father of Lamar Hunt.
Doing a quick search on H.L. via Wikipedia you find some really interesting factoids. Here are some of the high points:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._L._Hunt
1.) After his cotton plantation was flooded, he turned his last $100 into more than $100,000, gambling in New Orleans.
2.) He secured secured title to what was then the largest known oil deposit in the world (the East Texas Oil Field) , by purchasing it from 'charlatan' Columbus Marion "Dad" Joiner by agreeing to pay him $1,000,000 and protect him from legal entanglements due to how he acquired the land.
3.) Their home to the north of White Rock Lake in Dallas was an exact model of Mount Vernon.
4.) His first son, Hassie, who was expected to succeed him in control of the family business, was lobotomized in response to increasingly erratic behavior. He outlived his father, and was known, for decades following the procedure, to wander the shores of White Rock Lake cloaked in white sheets, as a ghost.
5.) Two other children, William and Bunker, are famous for having purchased much of the world's silver, in an attempt to corner the market. They ultimately owned more silver than any government in the world, before their scheme was discovered and undone. Bunker Hunt was briefly one of the wealthiest men in the world, having discovered and taken title to the Libyan oil fields, before Muammar Gaddafi nationalized the properties.
6.) While still married to Lyda, H. L. Hunt is said to have married Frania Tye of Tampa, Florida in November 1925, using the name Franklin Hunt. Frania claimed to have discovered the bigamous nature of her marriage in 1934, and in a legal settlement in 1941.
7.) Hunt supported and had children by Ruth Ray of Shreveport, Louisiana, whom he met when she was a secretary in his Shreveport office.
