Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020 - 43

L

ong before a parade of actors
donned a white suit, plus white
hair and a snowy beard, the real-life Colonel Harland Sanders
strolled the streets of Corbin,
Kentucky.
"The younger generation, at
one time, they didn't think the Colonel
was a real person," says Bill Hale, an area
manager for Kentucky Fried Chicken, including the original KFC called Sanders
Café in Corbin, Kentucky.
The "Colonel" title, by the way, was
an honorary one-as in "Kentucky Colonel"-rather than a military rank.
"Colonel Sanders was a real man,"
Hale says. "It's shocking to most people."
Sanders was a true entrepreneur, too,
and opportunity taker. He knew the
families shuttling down US-25W during the mid 20th Century wanted more
than just the gasoline at his pumps. So
he cooked food, and he operated a motel
called Sanders Court.
"He was the first one to have a swimming pool in his motel," remembers
Maxine Von Gruenigen, 89. "I don't

know why that always fascinated me,
but it does."
The Colonel also knew marketing.
Even on a personal scale. He had a model
motel room set up at his gas station and
restaurant in Corbin. And, here, visitors
could see a model of where they could
spend the night.
"He walked Main Street every day
of his life in Corbin," Von Gruenigen
says. "He would come downtown from
his restaurant to the Chamber of Commerce, and he would walk all the way
down Main Street and back and everybody would greet him every morning.
Everybody loved him."
While in Corbin, Sanders also mixed
11 herbs and spices in what became the
world-famous original recipe of Kentucky Fried Chicken.
"Colonel Sanders started his recipe here," says Hale. "He started frying
chicken at Sanders Café back in the '40s
and '50s, and he sold out in the '60s."
He also loved cooking more than
chicken and biscuits with mashed
potatoes.

He was the first one to have a
swimming pool in his motel.
ABOVE: This
advertising poster
is on display at the
restaurant museum
in Corbin, Kentucky.
LEFT: The Sanders
Café sign marks
the entrance to the
restaurant museum
at a Kentucky Fried
Chicken location in
Corbin, Kentucky.

During the 1960s, Sanders would visit the First Christian Church of Corbin,
Kentucky. "And he would bring oyster
stew to the church's pot luck suppers,"
says Maxine's husband, 92-year-old Eldred Von Gruenigen of Corbin.
Born in 1890, Sanders spent time as
an insurance salesman. In later years,
Sanders went on the road, seeking to sell
franchise rights to his restaurants during
the 1960s. Yet, in that era and into the
1970s, when he appeared on TV commercials, Sanders was also known to
drop into Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurants. And, if he didn't find food to
his liking, well, he would rather bluntly
let the cooks know.
"He had a restaurant in North Corbin,
and, every morning, he'd ask to see if everything was all right," says Eldred Von
Gruenigen. "If he found something was
wrong-anything-with breakfast, or if
it wasn't cooked right, he would throw a
fit. He was known for that."
Today, the original Sanders Café restaurant at Corbin is an eat-in museum,
where handsome walls-made of wormy
chestnut-display memorabilia. Original
equipment also dates to Sanders' lifetime, including the office where Sanders
worked and the kitchen where he cooked.
Harland David Sanders died on Dec.
16, 1980.
In Corbin, he's remembered not only
at the Sanders Café but also at a small
park on Monroe Street, just off the Main
Street where he once strolled. That park
includes a life-size statue of Colonel
Sanders plus an herb garden that hints at
the contents of KFC's secret recipe.
"He was a rascal," says Maxine Von
Gruenigen. "But, everybody loved him."

JULY/AUGUST 2020

43
Blue Ridge Country July/August 2020

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