Colonel Harland David Sanders(September 9, 1890 – December 16, 1980) was an American businessman, best known for founding fast food chicken restaurant chain Kentucky Fried Chicken (now known as KFC) and later acting as the company's brand ambassador and symbol. His name and image are still symbols of the company.Harland David Sanders started the business in 1952 and sold it in 1964, although he remained their corporate spokesman until his death. Governor Ruby Laffoon made him a Kentucky Colonel in 1935 in recognition of his contributions to the state’s cuisine. And in 1939, his establishment was first listed in Duncan Hines' "Adventures in Good Eating." Initiated: April 6, 1917
Demitted: February 27, 1920
Lodge No. 651 (Indiana), Henryville, Indiana
Passed: 1919
Raised: 1919
Courtesy to 651 (Indiana) by Clark 40 (Indiana)
Affiliated: October 27, 1953
Demitted: April 13, 1976
Hugh Harris Lodge No. 938, Corbin, Whitley County, Kentucky
Sanders held a number of jobs in his early life, such as steam engine stoker, insurance salesman and filling station operator. He began selling fried chicken from his roadside restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky, during the Great Depression. Sanders recognized the potential of the restaurant franchising concept, and the first KFC franchise opened in Utah in 1952. The company's rapid expansion across the United States and overseas was overwhelming for Sanders and, in 1964, he sold the company to a group of investors led by John Y. Brown, Jr. and Jack C. Massey for $2 million ($15.4 million today).
After being recommissioned as a Kentucky colonel in 1950 by Governor Lawrence Wetherby, Sanders began to dress the part, growing a goatee and wearing a black frock coat (later switching to a white suit), a string tie, and referring to himself as "Colonel." His associates went along with the title change, "jokingly at first and then in earnest," according to biographer Josh Ozersky.
He never wore anything else in public during the last 20 years of his life, using a heavy wool suit in the winter and a light cotton suit in the summer. He bleached his mustache and goatee to match his white hair.
Sanders was diagnosed with acute leukemia in June 1980. He died at Jewish Hospital in Louisville, Kentucky of pneumonia on December 16, 1980 at the age of 90. Sanders had remained active until the month before his death, appearing in his white suit to crowds. His body lay in state in the rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol in Frankfort after a funeral service at the Southern Baptist Theological SeminaryChapel, which was attended by more than 1,000 people. Sanders was buried in his characteristic white suit and black western string tie in Cave Hill Cemetery in Louisville.
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