South MS has lost an ‘irreplaceable’ businessman who could outwork anyone
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- W.C. Fore built a trucking and site-work empire that shaped Gulf Coast projects.
- He ran tight crews, enforced strict work hours and prioritized productivity.
- Fore developed land, bid major contracts and quietly supported staff and charities.
W.C. “Cotton” Fore of Biloxi worked hard all his life and had no tolerance for loafers.
His accomplishments will long outlast him as testaments to his labors — from the test stands at Stennis Space Center to the state port in Gulfport and the Chevron refinery in Pascagoula and most of the casinos in between. Fore company, W.C. Fore Trucking Inc., hauled and spread dirt, drove pilings and completed other work for those projects and many more.
His first big job, colleagues said, was site work for the Mississippi Coast Coliseum. He more recently worked on the Mississippi Aquarium in Gulfport.
“Cotton was the hardest-working man I’ve ever met in my life,” said his widow, Penny Fore. Family and friends were planning his 84th birthday party for Jan. 20 before he died at his home in Goose Pointe, a waterfront subdivision where he had bought the land and completed the site work.
Penny Fore said his body simply gave out. She was by his side when he took his last breath Thursday morning.
“The man would never stop and let his body heal,” she said. “Hardheadedness was his worst enemy.”
Fore known for work ethic
Fore grew up on a farm north of Gulfport. He was badly burned in the family fireplace when he was two years old and spent well over a year convalescing. His hair grew back in white. From then on, he was known as “Cotton,” even though his hair’s natural brown color eventually returned.
He was one of four siblings until he was 11 years old, when his mother gave birth to triplets. All three of the babies were girls.
Fore started work at age 13 and parlayed the first dump truck he bought into multiple businesses, investing in heavy machinery and land. He also loved and was adept at operating heavy machinery, working beside his crews and eating a homemade sandwich for lunch.
The multimillionaire was notoriously tight with money. He long drove a Toyota pickup truck with cloth seats because, he said, leather seats were an unnecessary extravagance. He also refused to stop on road trips for fast food, said Trisha Fore, who was previously married to one of Cotton Fore’s nephews and works as office manager at Fore Trucking.
“When you went on a trip with him, you brought a loaf of bread and lunch meat,” she said. “You never pulled into McDonald’s. You ate yourself a sandwich.”
Fore never put on airs. His standard attire was work shoes, khaki pants, a windbreaker and a ball cap or, in winter, a hat with flaps to cover his ears.
Fore also was known for getting into brawls, whether in a barroom or boardroom. He once smacked a man upside the head during a heated conference over a Harrison County dirt pit, the man related to the Sun Herald. The Harrison County resident, who was opposed to the pit, had called Fore a liar.
But Fore’s family and friends knew him as honest and direct. He never minced words.
“I worked for the meanest man in Mississippi for 30 years,” said Fore’s nephew, Lamont Ladner, who loved his uncle. “He was pretty rough. He was rough, but he paid me well.”
Ladner held various titles over the years at Fore Trucking but was basically his uncle’s right-hand man.
“He ran a very, very, very tight ship,” Ladner said. “He grew up with nothing.” Fore started his days at dawn. He expected his employees to work from 7 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. with a 30-minute lunch break — and not a minute more. He told Ladner that he expected workers to give 59 minutes out of every hour.
A sign on the door of Fore Trucking in North Gulfport summed up Fore’s stance:
“THERE IS NO LOAFING AT THIS PLACE OF BUSINESS. STATE YOUR BUSINESS AND LEAVE WITHIN 5 MINUTES!!! THANK YOU, W.C. FORE.
Gulfport businessman helped others
But everyone agreed that Fore had a soft side, including contractor Roy Anderson III.
“He was tough as nails, exterior-wise.,” Anderson said. “He had an extreme soft side that maybe he didn’t show to some people.”
Fore knew the Andersons and had worked for the family’s construction business before the two men bought the old Broadwater Resort property in April 2005 in Biloxi. At $82 million, it was believed at the time to be the most expensive real estate sale in state history.
Months later, Hurricane Katrina decimated the resort. The two men have been marketing it for a casino.
Meanwhile, the property became overgrown and attracted homeless campers. At various times, the city has run off the campers.
“Cotton stood up for them and said they weren’t hurting anybody and ought to be able to stay there,” Anderson said. “A lot of people were surprised by that.”
Over the years, Fore also quietly donated to families whose homes were destroyed by fire and to the Catholic Church. He felt a responsibility to his employees, too, creating other jobs for them when work was slow at Fore Trucking. For example, he developed subdivisions so they would have site work when things were slow at the trucking company.
His businesses complimented one another, Trisha Fore said.
He was, by all accounts, a brilliant businessman, especially when it came to land and machinery. He could look at a dirt pile and tell how many yards of material it held, or how much dirt he could extract from a piece of land.
He was competitive and bid on lots of big jobs. He was better than most anyone at putting together a winning proposal, Ladner said.
W.C. Fore Trucking hasn’t missed a beat since its owner died, and that’s the way Fore would have wanted it, Trisha Fore said. Framed photos of the cranes and heavy equipment he loved, and the jobs his company completed, line the office walls.
“I think it’s so heartbreaking, looking around this office and seeing the jobs he did,” Trisha Fore said. “He’s irreplaceable. There’s nobody this day and age who would be like him.”
This story was originally published January 10, 2026 at 5:00 AM.
