Roy Burchell, 73, who brought KFC to area in '60s, dies

Jul 03, 2009 (The Decatur Daily - McClatchy-Tribune Information Services via COMTEX) -- KTFBF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- The man who brought Kentucky Fried Chicken to Decatur and Athens in the 1960s died Thursday.

Roy Burchell, 73, worked directly under KFC founder Harland "Colonel" Sanders in the 1950s before the chicken franchise became a national sensation.

The Lawrence County native and graduate of Hazelwood High School was more than a restaurateur for nearly 50 years.

He loved muscle cars and owned the Huntsville Drag Strip for 25 years, was part owner of a television production company and raised champion bird dogs.

Friends described him as a man who lived each day to the fullest.

Best at everything

"If Roy was going to do it, it was going to be done right. He was going to be the best at whatever he did," said friend and business partner Bryan Cagle.

"But the biggest thing about Roy was he had a big heart," he said, "There are things he did for people that people will never know, and it would embarrass him if I told them."

One of their more successful partnerships was Crosscreek Television Production Co. It rents mobile live broadcasting equipment to networks and will supply ESPN with the equipment to televise morning SEC football games this fall.

Burchell's family moved to Henryville, Ind., in the mid-1950s and got to know Sanders' sister.

Sanders hired Burchell to work in the first KFC sit-down restaurant in Louisville, Ky., in 1956. They later traveled together with a three-burner stove and pressure cooker, trying to sell their chicken to chefs and restaurant owners.

After learning the trade from Sanders, Burchell opened his first KFC in 1962.

He was just 26 years old at the time. Bur-chell told The Daily in a 1994 interview, "He (Sanders) didn't want big chefs or big restaurant owners. He wanted someone to go in the kitchen in Decatur, Ala., and cook his chicken."

Burchell knew the business well enough to serve on the 15-member KFC national chef's council, which discussed and voted on new products and market strategy.

He humbly told The Daily that he owed much of his success to "being in the right place at the right time."

Burchell set up his first KFC at Sixth Avenue and Eighth Street Southeast. Two years later, he opened a second store at Westgate Shopping Center. The stores eventually located at U.S. 31 South and Beltline Road Southwest.

His Beltline store won the state sales volume award in 1990 and 1991. He sold both of the stores a few years ago, but still owned the one in Athens. Love of family

In more recent years, Bur-chell trained and bred bird dogs. Two of his, Sir John and Dutchman, were national champions.

Cagle said Burchell was semi-retired from the business world and was fully devoted to his family.

"We would eat lunch together at least twice a week, and all he would talk about was his grandkids," Cagle said. "He lived at the ballparks to watch his grandkids."

Burchell is survived by his wife, Crevolyn Souder Bur-chell; one son, Kevin Burchell; one daughter, Paige Burchell; and two grandchildren, Berek and Bowen Burchell.

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