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While in college he met Dorothy Hilda Price from Copiah County who would later become his wife. In 1948 John graduated from State with a BA in Business Administration. After graduation, John, built a home at the corner of Herbert Street and Collegeview Street for himself and his parents. He wed Dorothy in 1949 and started a family. The vending business that got him through college expanded, and he handled all the concessions at Mississippi State sporting events for a number of years, along with most of the vending machines on the campus. In 1953 John started the real estate business by building a duplex on Collegeview Drive. For the next thirty years, John continued to expand his real estate holdings as a sideline, while always working in other full-time jobs. John and Dorothy had four boys. All four boys grew up in the family businesses. They parched and bagged peanuts before every MSU ballgame and worked hawking hot dogs, peanuts and cokes.
During the early seventies, the vending business faded away.
John W. Guyton, Jr. passed away in November, 1994, after having seen his real estate holdings consolidated into a thriving, professional property management company. For the last twenty years, Mark and Charles have continued to grow and improve the company though acquisitions and remodelings. Now, Guyton Properties is one of the most well-respected rental property companies in Starkville. The Guyton Properties office and UA apartments are located in the same place that the Starkville Cotton Oil Company was until the 1930s. |
John W. Guyton, Jr. was born in Bonita, Louisiana in 1924 and grew up in Vicksburg, Mississippi during the Great Depression. He graduated from Carr Central High School in 1942 and came to Mississippi A&M College (now Mississippi State University). He put himself through college by running a vending business on campus. He had peanut and cashew machines in just about every building on campus.
The oak tree logo that Guyton Property uses to symbolize our stability and longevity originated from the logo on the small brown paper bags that peanuts were sacked in during ballgames.
In 1984 the real estate side of the business had grown to the size that it could no longer remain a sideline. John brought his son Mark in to assume the full-time day to day management of the rental business. At the same time, his son Charles took over the upkeep of the properties. In 1988 the management of the business was moved into a new office at 523 East Gillespie Street, and it continues in that location to this day.