COLUMBUS, Ind. — Brenda Robinson Freeman can still remember her first face-to-face encounter with a celebrity.
She was 16, working as a server in 1979 at her family’s restaurant on 17th Street in Columbus, which was called Robinson’s Fish Sandwich.
Two men walked in the front door. While she didn’t recognize one of them, she could tell by the white of the second man’s hair, mustache and goatee that the other dapper gentleman was possibly the most recognizable icon in fast food history.
“When he walked in the door, I asked him if he was Colonel (Harland) Sanders” said the then teen, she said. “And he said ‘yes, I am’.”
The man accompanying the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (now KFC) chain explained that he and Sanders have been going to fish stands to sample different recipes. In 1979, it had been 15 years since Sanders gad sold his shares of the fast-food chain.
While Sanders still served as a company spokesman and ambassador, Sanders was then focused on a restaurant named after his second wife: Claudia Sanders Dinner House in Shelbyville, Kentucky.
While Freeman said she did not have any lengthy conversation with Sanders, she said she was impressed at how kind and courteous he was. Before he left, he turned his chair over and wrote his signature and the date on the bottom of the seat.
“I’ve always wanted that chair, and I kept asking Mama (Lois Vice) why we left that chair behind,” Freeman said. “I’ve always thought that I’d never get that chair back.”
On Friday, Freeman and Vice were invited by the current owners of Ye Olde Fish House at 2024 17th St. At that time, Marlin and Denise Brown presented the chair to a very appreciative Freeman.
For more on this story, see Tuesday’s Republic.
