Colonel Harland Sanders

Posted October 14, 2007, 10:24 am by Growing Bolder


Colonel Harland Sanders
Born: Sept. 9, 1890  Died: Dec. 16, 1980

Legendary businessman and founder of the Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant franchise, Harland David Sanders started the business in 1952 and sold it in 1964, although he remained its spokesman until his death.

After the Age of Sixty
In the early 1950s, a new interstate highway was planned to bypass the town of Corbin. Seeing an end to his business, the Colonel auctioned off his operations. After paying his bills, he was reduced to living on his $105 Social Security checks.

In need of money the Colonel decided to try and franchise his secret recipe chicken. He traveled across the country by car from restaurant to restaurant, cooking batches of chicken for restaurant owners and their employees. If the reaction was favorable, he entered into a handshake agreement on a deal that stipulated a payment to him of a nickel for each chicken the restaurant sold.

By 1964, 74-year-old Colonel Sanders had more than 600 franchised outlets for his chicken in the United States and Canada.

Until he was fatally stricken with leukemia in 1980 at the age of 90, the Colonel traveled 250,000 miles a year visiting the KFC restaurants around the world.



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