Jimmy Rane
American businessman
James W. Rane (born 1947) is an American businessman, and the Founder, Chairman and former chief executive officer (CEO) of Great Southern Wood Preserving, one of the largest pressure treated lumber producers in the world. He has frequently appeared in advertisements for the company portraying a fictional cowboy named "the Yella Fella" after the company's flagship product of YellaWood. With an estimated net worth of $1.2 billion, Rane is the wealthiest person in Alabama.
Early life
Rane grew up in the small town of Abbeville, Alabama. His father was the son of Italian immigrants and a World War II veteran who operated several restaurants and hotels, eventually becoming the president of the local chamber of commerce. His mother’s family has lived in Abbeville for over 200 years. Rane attended Marion Military Institute before graduating from Auburn University with a bachelor's degree in business administration, becoming the first member of his family to graduate college. While studying at Auburn, Rane was a member of Theta Xi fraternity Rane would pursue a legal career, attending Cumberland School of Law at Samford University where he earned his Juris Doctor in 1971. In May 2026, Rane received the honorary Doctor of Commerce degree from Samford.
Career
While in law school Rane began working at law firm in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Jimmy Rane” enters the record as american businessman. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Jimmy, Rane and American can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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This entry incorporates text from “Jimmy Rane” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.