Harland Sanders
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Harland David (Colonel) Sanders | |
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| Born | September 9, 1890 Henryville, Indiana, U.S. |
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| Died | December 16, 1980 (aged 90) Louisville, Kentucky, U.S. |
| Occupation | restaurateur |
| Spouse | Josephine King (divorced) Claudia Price[1] |
| Children | Margaret Sanders Brandon Sanders, Grant Sanders. Mildred Sanders[1] |
| Parents | Wilbur David Sanders Margaret Ann Sanders (née Dunlevy)[2] |
Harland David Sanders, better known as Colonel Sanders (September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980), was an American entrepreneur who founded Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). His image is omnipresent in the chain's advertising and packaging, and his name is sometimes used as a synonym for the KFC product or restaurant itself.
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[edit] Early life and career
Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana. His father died when he was six years old, and since his mother worked, he was required to cook for his family. He dropped out of school in seventh grade. During his teen years, Sanders worked many jobs, including steamboat driver, insurance salesman, railroad firefighter, farmer, and enlisted in the Army as a private in 1918, although he spent his entire service in Cuba.
At the age of 40, Sanders cooked chicken dishes and others for people who stopped at his service station in Corbin, Kentucky. Since he did not have a restaurant, he served customers in his living quarters in the service station. Eventually, his local popularity grew, and Sanders moved to a motel and restaurant that seated 142 people and worked as the chef. Over the next nine years, he perfected his method of cooking chicken. Furthermore, he made use of a pressure fryer that allowed the chicken to be cooked much faster than by pan-frying.
He was given the honorary title "Kentucky Colonel" in 1935 by Governor Ruby Laffoon. Sanders chose to call himself "Colonel" and to dress in a stereotypical "Southern gentleman" costume as a way of self-promotion.
After the construction of Interstate 75 reduced his restaurant's standards, Sanders took to franchising Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants, starting at age 65, using $105.00 from his first Social Security check to fund visits to potential franchisees. [3]
Sanders sold the Kentucky Fried Chicken corporation in 1964, although he remained its corporate spokesman until his death. In 1971 he sued Heublein Inc. (the KFC parent company at the time) over alleged misuse of his image in promoting products he had not helped develop. In 1975 Heublein Inc. unsuccessfully sued Sanders for libel after he publicly referred to their gravy as "sludge" with a "wallpaper taste". [4]
[edit] Death and legacy
Sanders died of pneumonia on December 16, 1980.[5][6] He had been diagnosed with acute leukemia the previous June.[7] His body laid in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol; after a funeral service at the Southern Baptist Seminary Chapel attended by more than 1,000 people, he was buried in his characteristic white suit and black western string tie in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville, Kentucky.
He had a son, Harland, Jr., who died at a young age, and two daughters, Margaret Sanders and Mildred Ruggles.[7]
Since his death, an animated version of Colonel Sanders appeared in Kentucky Fried Chicken commercials for both radio and television (voiced by actor Randy Quaid).
The Colonel's secret flavor recipe of 11 herbs and spices that creates the famous "finger lickin' chicken"[8] remains a trade secret. According to a profile of KFC done by the Food Network television show Unwrapped, portions of the secret spice mix are made at different locations in the United States, and the only complete copy of the recipe is kept in a vault in corporate headquarters.
[edit] References
- ^ a b Colonel Sanders. www.nndb.com
- ^ Harlan Sander's Family Tree. www.genealogy.com.
- ^ I've Got A Secret interview, originally broadcast April 6, 1964 (rebroadcast by GSN March 30, 2008).
- ^ Kleber, John E.; Thomas D. Clark, Lowell H. Harrison, and James C. Klotter (June 1992). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. University Press of Kentucky, page 796. ISBN 0-81311-772-0.
- ^ Milestones. Time Magazine (1980-12-29). Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
- ^ "Col. Sanders, 90, Dies of Pneumonia", The Washington Post, 1980-12-17. Retrieved on 2008-05-18.
- ^ a b Edith Evans Asbury. "Col. Harland Sanders, Founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dies: [Obituary]", The New York Times, 1980-12-17, p. A33. Retrieved on 2008-05-19.
- ^ Andrew Shanahan. "Anatomy of a dish:KFC Family Feast - eight pieces of chicken(known as the "finger lickin chicken"), four regular fries, gravy and corn cobettes, £9.99", the Guardian, October 28, 2005. Retrieved on 2008-01-17.
[edit] Further reading
- Pearce, John, The Colonel (1982) ISBN 0-385-18122-1
- Kleber, John J. et al. (1992). The Kentucky Encyclopedia. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press. ISBN 0-8131-1772-0.
[edit] External links
- Kentucky Fried Chicken
- Harland Sanders at the Internet Movie Database
- Harland Sanders at Find A Grave
[edit] Multimedia
- CBC Archives CBC Radio talks with Colonel Sanders about Canadian food and cooking (from 1957).
