Harold Simmons was born in 1931 to two schoolteachers in Wood County, Texas, and played basketball at the University of Texas. He bought his first business, a drug store, for $5,000 and a $95,000 loan in 1961, building it into a chain he sold in 1973 for $50 million.
He would later own a sugar-beet processor, a savings and loan business, and a fast-food franchisee. The billionaire also made unsuccessful bids to buy defense contractor Lockheed Corp. and Pacific Southwest Airlines Inc. in the 1980s.
During the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Simmons donated to the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth group that questioned the Vietnam war record of then-presidential candidate John Kerry.