Lyman S. Ayres II
| Lyman Skinner Ayres II | |
|---|---|
| President of L. S. Ayres and Company | |
|
In office 1954–1962 |
|
| Chairman of the Board of L. S. Ayres and Company | |
|
In office 1962–1973 |
|
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Lyman Hoegh Ayres July 5, 1908 Indianapolis, Indiana |
| Died | December 28, 1996 (aged 88) |
| Resting place | Crown Hill Cemetery, Indianapolis |
| Citizenship | United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Spouse(s) | Isabel Ferguson Ayres (1908–1996) |
| Children | Elise (Ayres) Hanley, daughter Lyman Ayres, son, died in infancy |
| Parents |
Frederick M. Ayres Sr. (1872–1940) Alma (Hoegh) Ayres (1878–1969) |
| Relatives | Lyman S. Ayres (1824–1896), grandfather |
| Alma mater | Yale University |
| Occupation | Retail department store executive |
Lyman Skinner Ayres II (July 5, 1908 – December 28, 1996) was president of L. S. Ayres and Company from 1954 to 1962 and its chairman of the board from 1962 to 1973. The flagship store in the Ayres family's midwestern retail department store chain was founded by his grandfather, Lyman S. Ayres, in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1872.
Born on July 5, 1908, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Lyman Hoegh Ayres was the eldest child of Alma (Hoegh) and Frederick Murray Ayres Sr. Lyman's two siblings were a sister, Anne (1910), and a brother, Frederic M. Ayres Jr. (1913) Lyman II grew up in Indianapolis. At the age of twenty-one he replaced his middle name with the initial S. Lyman II graduated cum laude from Yale University. He served as a lieutenant in the U.S. Navy in the South Pacific during World War II.
Lyman's grandfather, Lyman S. Ayres, a dry goods merchant from Oswego, New York, founded the L. S. Ayres retail department store in Indianapolis in 1872. Lyman II's father, Fred, was president of the family's department store business from 1896 until 1940.
On September 22, 1934, Ayres married Isabel Ferguson, the daughter of Eliza and Homer L. Ferguson. Isabel's father was president and chairman of the board of Newport News Shipbuilding and Drydock Company in Newport News, Virginia. Ayres and Isabel had two children: Elise "Cotton" Ayres, born in 1937, and a son, Lyman, who died in infancy in 1946. Isabel died on May 15, 1992, at the age of 81; her remains are interred at Crown Hill Cemetery in Indianapolis.
In 1940–41 Ayres and his wife participated in the design of Twin Oaks, their Colonial Revival residence in Indianapolis. They also collaborated with landscape architect Frits Loosten to design its gardens. In 1955 Josiah K. Lilly Jr., the grandson of Eli Lilly (founder of Eli Lilly and Company), and Josiah's wife, Ruth Brinkmeyer, purchased Twin Oaks and made substantial alterations to create a European-style estate home, which they used for entertaining and as a guest house. Ruth, their daughter, lived at Twin Oaks from 1988 until her death in 2009. William and Laura Weaver subsequently purchased the home and leased it to the Indiana Historical Society.
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