Ted
Wampler Sr., the co-founder of Wampler's Farm Sausage in Lenoir
City, died Sunday.
He was 86.
Mr. Wampler started the family business in 1937 with his father, Riley Wampler, and mother, Edith Wampler.
"Dad built a tin shack on the creek near our home and, as an 11-year-old boy, I learned the sausage business from his butchering and mother's seasoning," he told the News Sentinel in a 1982 interview.
"My mother ground pork into sausage by hand. At times dad butchered 11 hogs a day, beginning in November before refrigeration became commonplace, and sold it door-to-door, not from store-to-store, mostly in Lenoir City and Harriman."
After shuttering for World War II, Riley Wampler suggested to his son that they reopen the slaughterhouse. Ted Wampler invested $1,100 and they renamed the business Wampler's Wholesale Meats. In 1981, the company's name was changed to Wampler's Farm Sausage.
Mr. Wampler, however, was more to Loudon County than just a meat salesman.
He served as a justice of the peace, foreman of the Loudon County grand jury, chairman of the Loudon County school board and the Loudon County Vocational Governing Board, and was on the executive board of directors of the Loudon County Rescue Squad.
A veteran of the Korean War with the U.S. Army, Mr. Wampler was charter member and past president of the Eaton Ruritan Club, past president of the Tennessee Meat Packers Association. He also was a longtime member of the American Legion and was a Mason for more than 50 years.
Mr. Wampler attended Crossroads Church of the Nazarene, where he taught Sunday school.
Mr. Wampler is survived by his wife, Frances Wilburn Wampler; daughter and son-in-law, Ruth Ann and Edwin R. Blackburn; sons and daughters-in-law, Ted Jr. and Sherri Wampler, John Edd and Kathy Wampler; foster daughter Karen Hansen; foster son Borce Lazarov; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.