RV legend dies at 83

TAMPA -- Herman Kemper Wallace, the folksy, country gent who lured thousands to Lazy Days RV with the exhortation "Tell 'em H.K. sent ya," died Thursday after a long battle with diabetes. He was 83.

Mr. Wallace co-founded with his two sons what grew into the nation's largest single recreational vehicle dealership. Lazy Days now sells more than 5,000 oversized RVs a year from a vast country-club-style supercenter on Interstate 4 in Seffner. Thousands of past customers wheel their big rigs into the campground for vacations and a tuneup while others are drawn to ogle $1-million megacoaches worthy of a touring NASCAR driver.

The 150-acre spread, which generates $600-million a year in revenues, is a far cry from the Wallace family's initial goal of selling two campers a month from their mobile home office on N Florida Avenue. The Wallaces did not make their sales goal until the company's fourth month, when they sold three.

"It started out a family business that truly involved every member of the family," said Don Wallace, the surviving son who is president and chief executive of Lazy Days RV. "We put H.K. in the TV commercials because he wanted to maintain close contact with every customer. Even after we got big, he was really angry if somebody failed to bring a customer over to meet him."

Born in Honaker, Va., H.K. Wallace grew up in a family of 12 children. His father died of tuberculosis during the Depression, and H.K. dropped out after the second grade to help support his mother. He sold apples and sandwiches to railroad passengers and gathered coal that fell off the trains to help stoke the family furnace.

During World War II his mother moved the family to Kingsport, Tenn., where she ran a boarding house for soldiers.

Mr. Wallace created an assortment of small businesses before he moved to Tampa in 1966. He and son Ron, who died in a traffic accident 13 years ago, were selling auto parts to service stations when Don Wallace in 1976 fixed up a camper trailer and resold it for a $500 profit. With his mother's help cleaning and painting, he found profits buying and reselling trailers in the classified ads. Thus was born Lazy Days RV, which united two sons with H.K. Wallace as president.

Mr. Wallace became a familiar fixture on Tampa Bay TV commercials until he retired in 1995. In 1994 he was named Temple Terrace Citizen of the Year.

He is survived by his wife of 56 years, Edith Wallace; son Don Wallace; daughter Connie Wallace Strickland; brother Dallas "Dick" Wallace; sister Willie Wallace Ball; three grandchildren and a great grandchild.

The family will receive friends from 6 to 9 p.m. Sunday at Gonzales Funeral Home, 7209 N Dale Mabry Highway, Tampa. A memorial service is scheduled for 2 p.m. Monday at the Carrollwood Kingdom of Jehovah's Witness, 8436 N Lois Ave.

-- Mark Albright can be reached at albright@sptimes.com or (727) 893-8252.

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