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About 2,000 people applied for 220 temporary jobs with Saturn. The long line of applicants wrapped around the makeshift application center in a vacant storefront at the Northway Shopping Center for most of the morning.

Ironically the one organization within General Motors that perhaps most effectively manages its brand -- Saturn -- has no one called a brand manager.

Richard 'Skip' LeFauve, who led Saturn through its infancy in Tennessee, died Sunday in West Palm Beach, Fla., from complications related to a heart attack. Mr. LeFauve, 68, oversaw the construction of Saturn's plant in Spring Hill, the launch of its first automobile line and helped disseminate the lessons he learned to other divisions of GM, Saturn's parent.

Saturn will supplement salaries through March, and then revisit the issue, spokeswoman Sue Mallino said. Saturn employs 6,900 people at its Spring Hill site.

Saturn announced in mid-September that it is offering Spring Hill UAW employees incentives up to $25,000 in an effort to trim expenses until production is increased late next year.

Richard "Skip" LeFauve, former president and chairman of GM's Saturn, has joined TI Automotive's board of directors.

Looking back at GM's history, it's not hard to see what propelled it to the forefront of American automakers. Early engineering breakthroughs, such as the electric starter and high-compression engine, earned the company a reputation for innovation that it maintained for much of the last century.

It was Mr. Hudler who sculpted the wildly successful marketing campaign that convinced consumers that Saturn is a different kind of car company, and more important, instilled the notion that the folks in Spring Hill, TN, Saturn's manufacturing home, have little to do with parent General Motors.

SaturnFans.com has learned that Jill Lajdziak, vice president of Saturn sales and marketing, has been reassigned to another position at the company.

In Wilmington, GM produces the Saturn LS sedan, which has been unable to make inroads against such powerful mid-size competitors as the Honda Accord and Toyota Camry or to lure buyers away from sport-utility vehicles.

Saturn team members and the Spring Hill community held a special memorial service on February 26th for former Saturn President, Richard G. "Skip" LeFauve.

Helping to create Saturn - from the plant's team-driven environment to the brand's funky, home-style ads - was a labor of love for LeFauve. But was there more to life than Saturn?

Maybe it's typical of executives with long careers that they begin to wonder if anyone might ever remember them when they're gone. Richard "Skip" LeFauve, who died January 25 at 68 from complications with recent heart surgery, had such thoughts.

Richard G. "Skip" LeFauve died Sunday, January 26th in a West Palm Beach, Florida hospital from complications he suffered from a heart attack last month. He was 68. Skip was president of Saturn from 1986 through 1995.

Richard G. "Skip" LeFauve is remembered as a "great guy" and "visionary leader" by General Motors President and Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner.