Wilber Hardee, Restauranteer
Founder of the Hardee’s Hamburger chain, Wilber Hardee, died on June 20 at the age of 89 due to a heart attack. His name has become legendary, as the founder of a chain that now has over 2,000 restaurants around the world. Those stores all started with one empty lot in Greenville, North Carolina where he opened his first hamburger stand. That no dining room, no drive-up window establishment was opened up on September 3, 1960 and sold hamburgers and milkshakes for .15 each.
In his youth, Hardee decided he didn’t want to go into the famiy corn and tobacco farming business so he got a job as a grill cook. Upon joining the Navy during WWII, he worked as a cook. When he returned he opened his first burger stand.
Hardee sold his shares of the restuarant in 1963 but a portion of his life story is now connected to each Hardee sign.
Ann Hardee Riggs, Hardee’s daughter said he got a kick out of seeing the red and white sign of the Hardee’s chain. “Anywhere he would go, he was proud to see his name up there.”
Tags: celebrity deaths, Wilbur Hardee
