William E. Ellington is at. the head of one of the leading productive industries at Kansas City as senior partner in the Ellington-McCarthy Motor Company. He was born in Homer, Louisiana, April 11, 1882, a son of William H. and Rebecca (Jordan) Ellington. The father, a native of Georgia, became the owner of a sugar plantation at Homer, Louisiana, and was one of the substantial business men of that locality. His political allegiance was given to the democratic party and his religious faith was that of the Methodist Episcopal church, South. He was a typical gentleman of the old school, courtly, kindly and with a high sense of honor.
William E. Ellington attended the public schools of New Orleans and also Ogden College at Bowling Green, Kentucky, from which he was graduated with the Bachelor of Arts degree. He turned his attention to the banking business as a clerk in the Commercial National Bank, one of the oldest banking institutions of Shreveport, Louisiana, and later he went to Dallas, Texas, where he represented the J. I. Case Plow Works, having ten salesmen under his direction at that point. In 1913 he was transferred to the Kansas City branch of the business as sales manager and continued In that position until 1916, when he was made sales manager for the Grant Motor Company of Kansas City. Thus he continued until December, 1917, when he established business on his own account under the name of the Ellington Motor Company, which on the 24th of May, 1920, became the Ellington-McCarthy Motor Company, handling the Gramm-Bernstein trucks, the highest priced trucks on the market. They handle also the Liberty trucks and their territory covers western Missouri, Kansas and northern Oklahoma, with a branch establishment at Salina, Kansas.
Mr. Ellington was married to Miss Rebecca Stretch, of Texas, and they have gained many friends during the period of their residence in Kansas City. Mr. Ellington belongs to the Chamber of Commerce, also to the Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks and in club circles his relations are with the Automobile and the Kansas City Clubs. He is a progressive business man of sound judgment, of unfaltering persistency and of marked enterprise and is rapidly building up a business of subtantial and gratifying proportions.