03/12/2026
Ellenae Fairhurst (1943-2024)
Automobile sales entrepreneur Ellenae Fairhurst was born on January 6, 1943 in Dayton, Ohio to Jack J. Hart Sr. and Ellen Nora Hart. She earned her B.S. degree from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio in 1965, and her M.A. degree in social and consumer psychology from the University of Detroit in 1973.
She worked as a secretary first for Motown Records and then for a local law firm. She was accepted into the management training program at Ford Motor Company in 1968, but had the offer rescinded when she got married between her hired date and her start date.
âWhen I went back for my first day as a married woman, they were no longer willing to put me in the training program, thinking that I would leave soon, have a family and all of that training would not be beneficial for them,â Fairhurst recalled.
Instead, she took a job as a secretary, eventually working her way up to management. In the mid-1980s, as Ford began downsizing, Fairhurst explored other career options and heard about the companyâs dealer training program. But after asking around, she learned it would not be a career path available to her as an African-American woman.
In 1986, after much persistence, Fairhurst left Ford and joined a minority dealer training program at Chrysler. Upon completing her training in 1988, she was named president and general manager of a dealership in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Several years later, she sold her shares in the business and used her life savings to purchase a Dodge dealership in Huntsville, Alabama.
As quoted in her obituary, Fairhurst once shared, âI was petrified the first time I met with all of the dealership employees, the most fear I had ever experienced in my life, but it worked out. When they realized I knew what I was doing and was willing to work harder and longer, even if it meant scrubbing the restrooms, I was accepted. I truly believed I had the ability to successfully operate a dealership.â
Believing in herself paid off. In 1999, she became the first African-American female in North America to own both Infiniti and Lexus dealerships. Other highlights of her career included being ranked several times in Black Enterprise magazineâs Auto Dealer 100 list, receiving the Daimler-Chrysler Five Star Award and achieving Elite of Lexus Status for most of the years her franchises were in operation.
Fairhurstâs success as an automotive dealership owner was widely recognized. In 2001, Fairhurstâs âautoplexâ was ranked at ninety-five on Black Enterprise magazineâs âAuto Dealer 100â list. The following year, the company was ranked at number fifty-six on the list. By 2013, the âautoplexâ was moved to fifty-four on the âAuto Dealer 100â list. Fairhurst has been also awarded the Daimler-Chrysler Five Star Award, and Elite of Lexus Status for most years sheâs been in operation.
Fairhurst served on the board of directors for the Chrysler Minority Dealers Association, the Huntsville Downtown Rescue Mission, and the Huntsville Chamber of Commerce. Fairhurst is also a member of the National Automobile Dealers Association and the National Association of Minority Automobile Dealers.
Upon her death, Fairhurst donated $550,000 to bolster The Dayton Foundation's African-American Community Fund to help African-Americans overcome adverse social and economic conditions.
(Sources: The Dayton Foundation, The History Makers)
