Esther Snyder

Esther Lavelle Snyder (née Johnson) (January 7, 1920 – August 4, 2006) was an American businesswoman.

She met Harry Snyder in 1947, while working at a restaurant in Seattle; the two were married the following year and moved to Baldwin Park, California.

She co-founded In-N-Out Burger, with her husband Harry Snyder, in 1948.

Snyder was born and raised in Sorento, Illinois, as one of eight children (seven daughters, one son).

She attended Greenville College and graduated from Seattle Pacific University with a bachelor's degree in zoology.

During In-N-Out's early years, Snyder managed all of the company bookkeeping herself, creating thousands of pages of handwritten notes and accounts.

Esther and Harry Snyder had two sons: Guy (1951-1999) and Rich Snyder (1952-1993) and one granddaughter from their first son Guy: Lynsi (born 1982).

Esther outlived her husband, who died in 1976 and both of their sons, one of whom died in a plane crash and the other of a drug overdose.

From January 2000 until her August 2006 death, Snyder served as the company's president.

Snyder died on August 4, 2006, in Baldwin Park, California, aged 86, from undisclosed causes.

Her only grandchild, Lynsi Snyder, is now the heiress to the In-N-Out Burger company.

Since In-N-Out Burger was started in the city of Baldwin Park, the city named its community center after Esther Snyder.