about LHS
The Lex Hall Sewell Family Foundation was founded with a mission to strengthen communities by supporting individuals and organizations that make a difference. Our foundation embraces these as our core values:
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To invest in our community and its citizens
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To empower and educate our future leaders
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To embrace the opportunity to serve those underserved and adopt orphaned causes
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To enhance the quality of life for all citizens regardless of race or class
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To engage in partnerships with community organizations and leaders to implement strategies for change
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To enrich and strengthen the lives of families
Lex Sewell's family, 2023
about LEX
Lex Sewell was born in Webster County, Mississippi in 1937 and attended Cumberland High School. He was the youngest of four children and was raised on a small farm. Lex and his family worked the land and raised their own food and their mother made what little money they had working at the school cafeteria. As a teenager, Lex spent his summers working. At age thirteen, he cut lumber at a local sawmill and during another summer he helped with the building of Grenada Dam.
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When he was old enough, Lex began working at a small grocery store in Eupora, MS. He was employed there while he was in High School and through his first year at Wood Junior College. Kroger had given Lex a management aptitude test when he graduated high school and they asked him to go work at their store in Starkville, MS. During this time, he worked full-time for Kroger and studied accounting at Mississippi State. After a year he was transferred to the Kroger in Memphis. By the age of 19 he started the Kroger Management Training Program and after the completion of the training he became a produce manager and by age 20 Lex was co-manager.
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His twenties were spent building his family and his career in the grocery business. His oldest daughter, Janice, was born in 1959. His middle daughter, Lycia, was born in 1961. His youngest daughter, Donna, was born in 1964. At the age of 23, Lex became manager of his own Kroger store and for the next few years he managed various stores. He was then moved to the Kroger office where he worked as a general merchandiser, in charge of advertising. After a year in the office, he was promoted to a zone manager.
All of his life Lex had wanted to go into business for himself, and at the age of 34 he took on that challenge and opened his first store -- a Big Star in Somerville, TN. Over the next six years, Lex opened other Big Stars and had several partnerships. In 1980 Lex met with his long-time friend Dan Allen and they decided to seek a new business venture together. That same year also brought another partnership for Lex -- he was married to his wife, Pearl.
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Lex and Dan established Sewell-Allen when they purchased a Safeway store that was going out of business in Memphis and opened it as a Big Star. Over the next 10 years they would continue to open more stores and eventually changed the Big Stars to Piggly Wigglys. Together, Lex and Dan were the first to bring video to grocery stores in the early 1980’s and they introduced scanning in the Memphis area. Lex was one of the original members of the Tennessee Grocers Association’s Board of Directors from 1978 to 1984. Sewell-Allen also hosted the Annual TN Grocers Education Foundation scholarship golf tournament in the late 1990’s and raised $237,000 to benefit the scholar program.
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Lex passed away in October of 2001, shortly after being named the Tennessee Grocer of the Year. At the time of his death, Sewell-Allen consisted of 15 stores operating in Memphis and Mississippi. They employed over 1400 associates and was the largest independent Grocer in the Memphis area.
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Lex and Pearl share four children, thirteen grandchildren, and seventeen great-grandchildren between them. His family started the Lex Hall Sewell Family Foundation to honor their grandfather’s legacy and give back to the community.
