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Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, Jr. (February 17, 1889 - November 29, 1974), known throughout his life as "H.L. Hunt", was an American oil tycoon. Hunt was born near Ramsey, in Carson Township, Fayette County, Illinois, the youngest of eight children. He was named after his father, Haroldson Lafayette Hunt, who was a prosperous farmer-entrepreneur; his mother was Ella Rose (Myers) Hunt. He was educated at home, and as a teenager traveled to various places before settling in Arkansas, where he was running a cotton plantation by 1912. He ended up making his fortune in the oil business. In 1957 Fortune Magazine estimated that he had a fortune of between US$400 million and US$700 million, and was one of the eight richest people in the United States. Hunt married twice, and had fourteen children. His first wife was Lyda Bunker (died 1955), whom he married in Arkansas on November 26, 1914. They had six children, the best-known of whom are Bunker, Lamar and Herbert. In 1925, he had an affair with Frania Tye (whom he never married), and they had four children, including Hugh Hunt, before splitting up in 1942. Hunt then had four more children with his mistress, a Hunt Oil Company secretary named Ruth Ray, whom he married in 1957. H. L. Hunt was buried in the Sparkman-Hillcrest Memorial Park Cemetery in Dallas, Texas. Although Hunt served as an inspiration for the television show Dallas , the show's producers had to tone down many of the more extravagant aspects of the family interactions in the interest of believability.
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