Kemmons Wilson: America's Innkeeper  By Mike Brewster In the
early 1950s, a new Interstate Highway system, cheap gasoline,
big cars, and prohibitively expensive air travel meant that even
millionaires packed up the family and took to the road for
driving vacations. It was summer, 1951, when Kemmons Wilson, one
of Memphis' most well-known businessmen, left on a two-week trip
to Washington, D.C., with his wife and five children.  A highly
successful real estate agent and homebuilder, Wilson was famous
in Memphis for constructing bigger and better houses than his
competitors, but charging similar prices. One of his pet phrases
-- "The space in the middle of a house doesn't cost anything" --
explained his common-sense approach to both building houses and
life in general.  That's why Wilson was particularly galled at
the $2-per-child surcharge that roadside motels commonly
attached to his bill on that fateful trip. The room was already
rented, Wilson reasoned. Why should it cost more if a few kids
are running arou