[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 13]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 17487]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                 HONORING THE MEMORY OF MR. LEROY HILL

                                  _____
                                 

                             HON. JO BONNER

                               of alabama

                    in the house of representatives

                         Friday, July 10, 2009

  Mr. BONNER. Madam Speaker, south Alabama and indeed the entire state 
recently lost a dear friend, and I rise today to honor him and pay 
tribute to his memory.
  Leroy Hill was born in Eagle Lake, Florida, and was a longtime 
resident of Grand Bay. He served in the Korean war as a staff sergeant 
ranger in the Airborne division of the U.S. Army.
  Following his career in the Army, Mr. Hill moved to Savannah, 
Georgia, and began his career in the coffee business. He worked as a 
Maxwell House route man for the Belford Company earning $40 a week. In 
1956, he transferred to Mobile and created his own coffee business, the 
Leroy Hill Coffee Company, Inc. Mr. Hill purchased the Mobile operation 
of the Belford Company in 1968 and soon expanded the company into the 
Florida panhandle. Leroy Hill Coffee Company, Inc. today has 22 
locations throughout the Southeast, and its products can be found in 
restaurants, grocery stores, and convenience stores.
  Mr. Hill and his wife, Debbie, also ran a successful cattle business 
that started with the purchase of his first acreage in Grand Bay in the 
late 1960s. He was a longtime member of the Alabama Cattlemen's 
Association and ABBA Shrine. He also made many charitable donations as 
a way of thanking his community; he donated the playground equipment 
for Breitling Elementary School in Grand Bay.
  Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in remembering a 
dedicated community leader and friend to many throughout the state of 
Alabama. Leroy Hill will be deeply missed by his family--his wife, 
Debbie; his three sons, Roy Wayne, Todd, and Brian; his daughter, Debra 
Stewart; his stepdaughter, Brandy Ramsay; his 13 grandchildren; and his 
two sisters, Doris Gatlin and Dorthy Brooks Hicks--as well as the 
countless friends he leaves behind.
  Our thoughts and prayers are with his family at this difficult time.

                          ____________________