Colonel Sanders was born on September 9 1890 and was a businessman known for founding the popular fast-food chain KFC. He was the face/ mascot behind the brand and ultimately was known as “the KFC guy”.
Sanders was born in Henryville, Indiana being the eldest of his two siblings. His mother was of Irish and Dutch descent. The family attended the Advent Christian Church. His father was a mild and affectionate man who worked his 80-acre farm until he broke his leg after a fall. He then worked as a butcher in Henryville for two years. In 1985 his father died and he was left to be responsible for his siblings as his mom worked all day.
Sanders had a tumultuous relationship with his stepfather. In 1903, he dropped out of seventh grade (later stating that "algebra's what drove me off"), and went to live and work on a nearby farm. At age 13, he left home. He then took a job painting horse carriages in Indianapolis.
When he was 14, he moved to southern Indiana to work as a farmhand.
In 1906, with his mother's approval, Sanders left the area to live with his uncle in New Albany, Indiana. His uncle worked for the streetcar company and secured Sanders a job as a conductor. Sanders falsified his date of birth and enlisted in the United States Army in October 1906, completing his service commitment as a wagoner (see teamster) in Cuba.
He was honorably discharged in February 1907 and moved to Sheffield, Alabama, where his uncle lived. There, he met his brother Clarence, who had also moved there in order to escape their stepfather. The uncle worked for the Southern Railway, and secured Sanders a job there as a blacksmith's helper in the workshops. After two months, Sanders moved to Jasper, Alabama, where he got a job cleaning out the ash pans of trains from the Northern Alabama Railroad (a division of the Southern Railway) when they had finished their runs.
Sanders found laboring work with the Norfolk and Western Railway from 1910. While working on the railroad, he met Josephine King of Jasper, Alabama, and they were married shortly afterwards
In 1939 he opened a restaurant where he sold fried chicken and later lead him to his “calling”, KFC. A few years later he finalized his secret recipe where he fried chicken In a pressure cooker instead of a stove. In 1952, he opened up his first KFC and the rest is history. KFC is now one of the world’s largest chicken franchise and is a go-to in many households.