Businessman James Drury, 78, dies

Outspoken businessman James L. Drury, founder with his brothers from Kelso, Mo., of the businesses that grew into the Drury hotel and development empire, died Monday morning at the age of 78.

In the 1970s, James Drury took over as president of MidAmerica Hotels Corporation, which operates hotels in Cape Girardeau, St. Louis and Paducah, Ky., as well as Burger King restaurants in Missouri, Illinois, Arkansas and Kentucky.

His son, Daniel Drury, is now president of the company. In an interview Monday afternoon, Drury said his father leaves a legacy of hard work, frugality, and concern for his family, employees and his community.

"He loved his family and he loved his extended family and that was the people that worked with him," Drury said. "I want to emphasize that people worked with him, not for him."

The Drury family formed Drury Tile & Plastering Co. in 1959, with brothers Charles Drury Sr., James Drury, Jerome Drury, Tom Drury and Robert Drury joining their father, Lambert Drury, in a construction firm. The brothers opened a Holiday Inn hotel in Cape Girardeau in 1961 and built their first Drury Inn in Sikeston several years later.

"For a man without a college education, he could teach all the professors and all of us a thing or two," Daniel Drury said of his father.

Funeral arrangements are incomplete with Ford & Sons of Cape Girardeau.

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