Jonathan E. Byrd

Jonathan E. Byrd 57, passed away Thursday afternoon, August 20, 2009. He was a resident of Greenwood. He was born January 6, 1952 in Greenwood, IN to Carl Byrd and Lala (Wethington) Byrd. He married Virginia "Ginny" Driver on September 8, 1973 at the Indianapolis Baptist Temple. She survives. Survivors include his two sons, Jonathan E. (Abigail) Byrd, II of Greenwood and David N. (Jewel) Byrd of Goodyear, AZ; mother, Lala (Ron) Isom of Columbus; sister, Janeen (Rick) Sprague of Columbus; nephew, Nick Sprague and seven grandchildren, Geneva, Noah, Nathan, Ashleyanna, Taryn, Evelyn, and Jonathan "Jebbie" Byrd, III. His education included Park College Preparatory School in Indianapolis, Cornell University, and the Robert F. Sharp School of Planned Giving and Development. He was the recipient of an honorary doctorate in the humanities from Heritage Baptist University and a doctorate in theology from Emmanuel Ministries. Whenever he was given the opportunity, Jonathan Byrd would always talk about all of the significant events of the Bible, and of the life of Christ, that involved food. There were the occasions of the feeding of several thousand people, the story of the resurrected Savior cooking fish for his disciples on the shore of the Sea of Galilee, and of course, the meal of the Last Supper, when Jesus shared the mystery and the power of Him sacrificing His body and His blood for the salvation of the world. There was power in those events, and Jonathan realized very early on in life, that there is something significant, and something very special, about serving people food. In spite of the long hours, the pressure, the mess and the headaches, this business of restaurants gets in your blood. That was certainly true of Jonathan Byrd. For all practical purposes, he was born into it. While he was still in diapers, mom and dad opened up a little custard stand, right here in Greenwood. Over time, that custard stand expanded its offerings, selling burgers and fries, the staples of a good, all-American diet. Eventually, the little custard stand grew up to become "The Kitchen Drive-In". "The Kitchen" was the place to be, for the food and for the scene. Typical of restaurants of that day, it was family run. It was the drive-in restaurant of yester-year, with curb service, girls on roller-skates, trays hanging off of car windows, and of course, great food. It was the kind of place that you see in old movies; the kind of place that represents a nostalgic time that was a little simpler and a lot slower than the pace at which we all live today. "The Kitchen" is where Jonathan Byrd grew up, and came to realize that his life was going to be defined by service, in whatever form that service would take. In the greasy, demanding, and always marginally profitable food-service industry, he came to discover that he had a real gift, and it was put to use at a young age. At ten years old, he was flipping burgers, making shakes and frying fries. Just a few years later he was the one working the counter, taking all of the orders, and giving the orders too. Mom and dad discovered that their little boy, young as he was, was the one that could keep their little restaurant humming, running like a well-oiled machine, and turning out those burgers, fries and malt shakes like nobody's business. At the age of fifteen, in the summer of '67, he took charge, and quickly found himself in his element. The 90-hour work weeks that summer didn't bother him, and once the school year came around again, the fact that work absorbed nearly all of his out of school hours didn't faze him either. He was serving people food, making people happy, and loving every minute of it, as he always would. He had, without a doubt, found his place, and part of his calling in life, and there would never again be a time, while he was able, that he did not find himself owning and running a restaurant. Not too much time passed before a man by the name of Harland Sanders, who would eventually be referred to as simply, "Colonel", came calling at The Kitchen. This Colonel was pitching his very own, very special, fried chicken recipe, and was traveling through the area, attempting to convince all of the mom and pop restaurants that dotted the landscape, that they needed to sell his particular style of fried chicken. The only catch was that, in order to use his recipe, you had to agree to pay him a nickel for every order of "Colonel Sanders Original Recipe Kentucky Fried Chicken" that you happened to sell. What a ridiculous idea! Who had ever heard of such a thing? Jonathan's dad, Carl, thanked the Colonel for his time and sent him on his way. Without a doubt, it was good fried chicken, but he wasn't about to shell out his hard-earned money for the privilege of selling some chicken recipe. But ultimately, that meeting would result in fried chicken being a staple of the Jonathan Byrd legacy, and why some people, despite Jonathan's success in venues such as hotels, television, fundraising, racing, and pretty much anything that he ever put his hand to, still refer to Jonathan as "chicken man", and why Jonathan would so often refer to himself as nothing more than "an old chicken cook from Greenwood, Indiana." About the same time as that encounter, two things took place that would serve to shape Jonathan Byrd's future. The first was that mom and dad decided that the Colonel did indeed have a pretty good idea and a pretty good product, so they decided to venture into a new business. That business was the first of what would eventually be more than a dozen Kentucky Fried Chicken franchises. The second thing to happen was that Jonathan applied to and was accepted by the Cornell University School of Hotel & Restaurant Administration. He wrote his entrance paper on the natural correlation between the development of the interstate highway system, and the operation of cafeteria-style restaurants. He had always loved cafeterias. He would often say, "What could be better than pointing to something, saying, 'I want that', and having it handed to you?" Though there was prestige attached to attending an Ivy League school, Jonathan only attended a short while, before deciding that his place was back in the kitchen, and at the helm of the family's restaurant operations. For the next twenty years, Jonathan Byrd built his name and his reputation around fried chicken. He became one of the most successful and respected men in the business of foodservice, throughout central Indiana. His ventures into ministry work, broadcasting and racing were all met with success, and even in times of national crisis, the businesses seemed to be blessed beyond measure and made to flourish. However, the vision of the cafeteria next to the freeway continued to hold a special place in the back of his mind. Finally, nearly twenty years after the vision was born, Jonathan knew that the time had come to take a leap of faith. After much prayer and deliberation, he came to the agonizing decision to sell off all of the "chicken stores" and to build the restaurant of his dreams. In 1987, the deal was struck, the great journey was embarked upon, and putting every dime to his name on the line, the arduous task of bringing Jonathan Byrd's Cafeteria into existence was begun. A test kitchen was opened to begin developing recipes, the most important of which was the recipe for Jonathan Byrd's fried chicken. It took over one thousand attempts over the course of a year, to come up with a fried chicken recipe that could successfully bear the weight of the "chicken man's" reputation. And it was worth the effort, because without a doubt, it absolutely has to be the finest fried chicken in the world. Construction on the dream began in April of 1988. After delays, storms, cost over-runs, pronouncements of failure from all corners, a