DID YOU KNOW?
for every man, woman, and child in the United States. All this has made Sanders a millionaire and an international celebrity.
As Sanders liked to say, “There is no one in the world the name ‘Kentucky’ has meant more to than me.” Interestingly, the man who capitalized off Kentucky more than anyone is not even a native. Sanders was born September 9, 1890, on a farm near Henryville, Indiana. Born to poor parents, Sanders quit school after the sixth grade so he could support his widowed mother and younger brother and sister by working for $2 a day on a neighbor’s farm.
Today, 20 years later, it is almost impossible to find any town on Earth that does not have at least one Col. Sanders Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. With 5,283 stores in 44 countries, KFC outranks McDonald’s as the No. 1 fast-food chain in the world. To put the KFC story in another perspective, the company fried and served 260 million chickens in 1975. That figures out to be 800 million meals and almost 2.4 billion pieces of chicken—enough for 11 pieces
During the next 30 or so years, Sanders worked at several different jobs: Army service, railroad laborer, fireman, cook, and insurance salesman. He was on the road selling tires one day in the late 1920s when a bridge cable broke, and Sanders and a new car tumbled 42 feet into a stream near Nicholasville, Kentucky.
Although Sanders survived, he found himself without transportation. He gave up the traveling salesman business and
But Sanders, if nothing else, was a man of vision. He was intrigued by the idea. His goal was to franchise his chicken in 100 restaurants in Kentucky, Illinois, and Ohio. He would ask a nickel per serving, with the rest going to the restaurant.
Anyway, it was not easy at first. Restaurant owners were amused by the audacious little man in his black string tie and white plantation suit. Still, they had to admit that his fried chicken was, as he claimed, “finger lickin’ good.” But Sanders had trouble getting them to buy into the franchise idea. So, using his Social Security money and what he had made from selling his motel-restaurant-gas station complex in Corbin, Kentucky, Sanders drove thousands of miles before finally selling the first franchise in Salt Lake City.