Harland David "Colonel" Sanders (9 September 1890-16 December 1980) was an American businessman and the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC). Born in Henryville, Indiana, he founded a roadside fried chicken restaurant in North Corbin, Kentucky during the Great Depression and developed his own secret recipe for making fried chicken. In 1935, he was given the honorary title of "Kentucky Colonel" by Governor Ruby Laffoon, and he came to be popularly known as "Colonel Sanders". In 1952, the first KFC franchise opened in South Salt Lake, Utah, and, in 1964, the 73-year-old Sanders sold the company for $2 million ($16.5 million adjusted for inflation) and became its brand ambassador and symbol. However, he later criticized the food's deteriorating quality and the cut costs of making the fried chicken.
Sanders was a political conservative who donated to George Wallace's 1968 American Independent Party bid for the presidency of the United States, and Wallace considered naming Sanders his running mate. However, Sanders supposedly supported Wallace mostly because of his foreign and economic policies, while not sharing his segregationist views; Sanders had made donations to several Christian denominations, including African-American churches which he sometimes attended. He died in Louisville in 1980 at the age of 90.