![\"JDBassett\"](\"http:\/\/www.bassettbranches.org\/newsblog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/01\/JDBassett.jpg\")
<\/a>\nGreensboro Daily News, North Carolina, Wednesday, May 25, 1966
\nFurniture Executive Succumbs
\nSpecial To The Daily News<\/p>\n
\u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 BASSETT, Va. \u2013 John Douglas (Doug) Bassett Jr., 65, died Tuesday in a Roanoke hospital He was chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Bassett Furniture Industries Inc.
\nFuneral will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday at Pocahontas Bassett Baptist Church. The body will be at the home this morning until it is taken to the church Thursday at 11 a.m.
\nThe family has requested that memorial contributions be made to the fund drive of Martinsville General Hospital.
\nBassett had been seriously ill since last Thursday. He first became ill at his winter home in Hobe Sound, Fla., in March, and underwent surgery in Roanoke May 6 for a spinal collapse.
\nBassett had headed the furniture manufacturing and sales complex since 1960, when he succeeded his late brother, W.M. Bassett. First president of the corporation was Bassett\u2019s father, J.D. Bassett, who died last year at 98.
\nBassett Furniture Industries Inc. is the world\u2019s largest producer of dining room and bedroom furniture and employs 4,000 persons. Three years ago it entered the upholstered furniture field with the purchase of Prestige Furniture Co. at Newton, N.C.
\nBassett first began working in one of his father\u2019s plants when he was 12, and by the time he was 22 he was vice president of one of the companies that comprised the Bassett empire.
\nBassett attended Blackstone Military Academy, Washington and Lee University and National Business College.
\nAt the time of his death, Bassett was president of the First National Bank of Bassett and board chairman of Bassett Mirror Co., Bassett-Walker Knitting Co., Valley Veneer Co. and Burkeville Veneer Corp.
\nHe was a director or an officer of various other enterprises, including the \u00a0nation\u2019s three major furniture exhibition buildings, including the one at High Point.
\nHe was a trustee of the Virginia Foundation for Independent Colleges, Roanoke College and Martinsville General Hospital. He was a member of the advisory committee for the Patrick Henry Branch of the University of Virginia in Martinsville.
\nHe was a member of country clubs in Bassett, Martinsville and Hobe Sound, Fla.
\nBassett is survived by his wife, Mrs. Lucy Akers Brown Bassett; daughters, Mrs. James Andrews of Martinsville, Mrs. D. H. Lane of Altavista and Mrs. Robert H. Stilman of Danville, wife of the executive vice president of Bassett Furniture Industries; a son, John D. Bassett III, a vice president of the corporation; a sister, Mrs. Thomas B. Stanley of Stanleytown. Her husband is a former governor of Virginia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
John Douglas Bassett descends from #2B Thomas Bassett of Virginia as follows: Thomas Bassett (b. 1617) and wife Mary William Bassett (b. 1643) Thomas Bassett (b. 1668) and wife Elinor Thomas Bassett (b. 1696) and wife \u00a0Lydia Howle Nathaniel Bassett … Continue reading