About 1,000 mourners remember Dillard's founder

LITTLE ROCK - Friends and colleagues on Monday remembered the man who built one of the country&#39;s largest retail chains as an old-fashioned businessman who put more importance on a handshake than a written agreement.<br> <br> William T. Dillard Sr., who started the Dillard&#39;s Department Store chain at the end of the Depression, died Friday at his Little Rock home. He was 87.<br> <br> Dillard &#34;always said that a good business deal was when both parties benefited about equal,&#34; said Calvin Clyde, a Dillard&#39;s Inc. board member and Tyler, Texas, businessman.<br> <br> About 1,000 mourners gathered at Trinity United Methodist Church in Little Rock, including Lt. Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller, former Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, University of Arkansas athletic director Frank Broyles, and former congressman and Dillard&#39;s board member John Paul Hammerschmidt.<br> <br> Dillard was the founder and chairman of Dillard&#39;s Inc., formerly known as Dillard Department Stores Inc. The chain started in 1938 with a 2,500-square-foot store in Nashville, Ark., and now has 340 stores in 30 states.<br> <br> Dillard was born Sept. 2, 1914, in Mineral Springs, a small town 110 miles southwest of Little Rock.<br> <br> Minister Walter Smith, a longtime friend of Dillard, told of how much it meant to the department store magnate when he received the key to the city of Mineral Springs.<br> <br> &#34;He received a lot of keys to a lot of cities ... And do you know this key he was given actually fit the door&#34; to city hall, Smith said.<br> <br> Smith said Dillard was &#34;a 20th-century retail icon&#34; and said a sign on the wall in Dillard&#39;s office explained the man behind the business: &#34;Business without integrity isn&#39;t good business and in the long run, it won&#39;t be successful.&#34; <br> <br>