Dortch Oldham, who helped turn Nashville's Southwestern Co. into a sales dynamo that influenced the lives of thousands of young people who worked for it during college, passed away yesterday after a long illness. He was 89.
Born into humble circumstances in the farming community of Pleasant Shade, Tenn., Oldham hitchhiked to Nashville at the age of 16 with a few dollars in his pocket and a notion to go to work selling bibles door-to-door for Southwestern, one of the city's oldest companies.
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