Photo courtesy of the Commercial Appeal
The founder of an airline company that once provided service to Baxter County was killed Thursday night in a shooting incident in downtown Memphis. According to the Commercial Appeal, the death of Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Phil Trenary was confirmed by the chamber and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland.
Memphis police officers responded to the shooting just before 8:00 on South Front Street and described the suspect as a black male with dreadlocks wearing a blue shirt and driving white four-door pickup truck. The chamber was reportedly hosting a four-mile race at nearby Loflin Yard at the time of the shooting.
The 64-year-old Trenary founded Lone Star Airlines in Oklahoma in 1984. Lone Star is a past provider of airline service to the Baxter County Airport. The company filed for bankruptcy in August 1998 and was liquidated nearly two months later. Trenary moved to Memphis in 1997 to operate a regional airline that morphed into Pinnacle, a $1 billion regional airline operator. He stepped down as CEO in 2014 to lead the Greater Memphis Chamber of Commerce.
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