* Pelham Lawrence; Head of Perdue Farms Poultry Firm

Pelham Lawrence, 47, president of Perdue Farms Inc., the nation’s fourth-largest poultry producer. Lawrence had served almost two decades in various executive capacities for the company, known in the East for its television commercials in which former Chairman Frank Perdue declares, “It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.” Lawrence, the brother of Miami Herald Publisher David Lawrence Jr., was named treasurer of Perdue in 1977, chief financial officer in 1980, vice president of finance in 1983 and president in 1991. On Saturday in Altoona, Pa., of a heart attack.