Henry Morgan

Henry Steindorff Morgan was born September 11, 1919, to Joe B. Morgan and Frances Steindorff Morgan in Escambia County, Alabama. Henry was one of seven siblings with three sisters and three brothers. His father was a salesman whose family accompanied him to jobs in Memphis, Birmingham and Montgomery. He graduated from Montgomery’s Sidney Lanier High School in 1939. Henry married Bettye Elmore in 1946, and they have two sons Henry S. “Mike” Jr., and Richard E. “Rick”. 
After working five years in operations and traffic for Eastern Airlines and three years for the U.S. Government in the Veterans and Farm Security Administration, in Montgomery, Morgan wanted to go into business for himself. The old Pan American Petroleum Company (Amoco BP) needed someone to sell its brand in southern Alabama and so Morgan opened that territory in 1947. His first station was on West Cummings Avenue and later became known as the Roadrunner. 
In Summary: 
  • 1947 — Morgan Distributing Company – Pan-American gasoline distributorship. 1951- Morgan Recapping Company. 
  • 1956 – H. Morgan Tire Company – first retail store in Fort Walton Beach, Florida. 
  • 1961 – Converted the tire and recapping entities into Auto-Sav, Inc. 
  • 1970 – Auto Sav had 34 stores in five southeastern states. 
  • 1985 – Auto Sav sold to ALFA. 
  • 1985 – Auto Sav Recapping Plant sold to McGriff Rubber Company but continued to operate in Opp until 1996. 
  • 1986- Began producing and marketing Mr. Henry’s Gourmet Products. 
  • 1986- Copyrighted the Mr. Henry’s name. 
  • 1998 – Started H.S. Morgan, LLP 
  • 2006- Morgan Distributing Company and Mr. Henry’s Convenience Stores sold to A. W. Herndon Oil Company. 
  • 2008- Mr. Henry’s Cookies continue to be produced under license by Headland Gourmet Bakery, LLC. 
During this time Henry Morgan served in leadership positions with Alabama Petroleum Marketers, National Oil Jobbers Council, National Tire Dealers and Alabama Tire Dealers. He was featured and honored by a wide variety of regional and national media. He was active locally as a member of the Lion’s Club and the Chamber of Commerce. He served as president of the Opp Chamber in 1956-57. He was an active member of the First Baptist Church, serving as Youth Training Union Director and Brotherhood President. 
Henry Morgan was a successful and innovative businessman who started several businesses in Opp, which grew to encompass not only the State of Alabama, but five Southeastern states. As an Amoco gasoline distributor, he was the first to introduce the concept of “Self Service” not only in Opp, but in the state. In 1950 the Henry Morgan Tire Company became Auto Sav, Inc., a chain of franchise retail tire stores with stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi and North Carolina. Auto Sav Recapping Company, Inc. in Opp, grew to produce 1500 retread tires a week. In the late 1980s, Mr. Morgan started his last, and perhaps most famous enterprise, Mr. Henry’s cookies which were sold throughout the United States and eventually internationally, to include Canada and Taiwan. 
Henry Morgan, as “Mr. Henry” has been for the last 20 years, a goodwill ambassador for Opp. He has appeared all over the Southeast in a tuxedo, usually with a life size cutout of himself, promoting Mr. Henry’s Gourmet Cookies. Always prominently displayed in signs, brochures and proudly mentioned in television and radio appearances and commercials has been the fact that the famous cookies were made in Opp. For many years, Mr. Henry’s Cookies were “The Official Cookie of the Auburn Network,” and Jim Fyffe, the long-term voice of the Auburn Tigers, never mentioned Mr. Henry’s Cookies without saying that they were “…made in beautiful downtown Opp.” He was inducted into the Hall of Fame in 2008.