John Y. Brown Jr.

John Young Brown Jr. (December 28, 1933 – November 22, 2022) was an American politician and business entrepreneur from Kentucky.

Brown was born on December 28, 1933, in Lexington, Kentucky.

He was the only son of five children born to John Y. and Dorothy Inman Brown.

His father was a member of the United States House of Representatives from Kentucky and a member of the Kentucky General Assembly for nearly three decades, including a term as Speaker of the House.

John Sr. was named for, but not related to, the nineteenth century governor of the same name.

After high school, Brown matriculated at the University of Kentucky, where he earned a bachelor's degree in 1957 and a law degree in 1960.

As an undergraduate, he was a member of the golf team and Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

While in law school, he made as much as $25,000 a year selling Encyclopædia Britannica sets and employed a sales crew made up of classmates to increase his profits.

Brown joined his father's law practice after earning his law degree.

From 1959 to 1965, he also served in the United States Army Reserve.

In 1960, Brown married Eleanor Bennett Durall and had three children including John Young Brown III, Eleanor Faris, and Sandra Bennett.

He got his wife involved in managing a barbecue restaurant; upon seeing its success, he became convinced of the financial potential of the fast food industry.

He served as legal counsel for Paul Hornung when Hornung was suspended for the 1963 National Football League season for gambling.

After only a few years, Brown left his father's law firm and began a career in business.

During a 1963 political breakfast, Brown met Colonel Harland Sanders, the founder of Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC), and the two discussed selling Sanders' chicken in Brown's chain of barbecue restaurants.

After briefly practicing law with his father, he purchased Kentucky Fried Chicken from founder Harland Sanders in 1964.

By 1964, Brown persuaded Jack C. Massey to purchase KFC from Sanders for $2 million.

The investment group changed the restaurant's format from the diner-style restaurant envisioned by Sanders to a fast-food take out model.

Giving all their restaurants a distinct red-and-white striped color pattern, the group opened over 1,500 restaurants, including locations in all 50 U.S. states and several international locations.

For his work with KFC, Brown was named one of the Outstanding Young Men of America by the Junior Chamber of Commerce in 1966; the following year, the Chamber named him one of the Outstanding Civic Leaders of America.

By 1967, KFC had become the nation's sixth-largest restaurant chain by volume and first offered its stock for public purchase in 1969.

During the 1970s, he also owned, at various times, three professional basketball teams: the American Basketball Association's Kentucky Colonels, and the National Basketball Association's Boston Celtics and Buffalo Braves (currently the Los Angeles Clippers).

Brown turned the company into a worldwide success and sold his interest in the company for a huge profit in 1971.

He then invested in several other restaurant ventures, but none matched the success of KFC.

He served as the 55th governor of Kentucky from 1979 to 1983, and built Kentucky Fried Chicken (KFC) into a multimillion-dollar restaurant chain.

The son of United States Congressman John Y. Brown Sr., Brown's talent for business became evident in college, where he made a substantial amount of money selling Encyclopædia Britannica sets.

Despite having previously shown little inclination toward politics, Brown surprised political observers by declaring his candidacy for governor in the 1979 election.

With the state and nation facing difficult economic times, Brown promised to run the state government like a business.

A strong media campaign funded by his personal fortune allowed him to win the Democratic primary and go on to defeat former Republican governor Louie B. Nunn in the general election.

Because he owed few favors to established political leaders, he appointed many successful businesspeople to state posts instead of making political appointments.

Following through on his campaign promise to make more diverse appointments, he named a woman and an African American to his cabinet.

During his tenure, Brown exerted less influence over the legislature than previous governors and was frequently absent from the state, leaving Lieutenant Governor Martha Layne Collins as acting governor for more than one-quarter of his term.

A 1979 People magazine article recounts that the elder Brown's nine unsuccessful political races – for either governor or the U.S. Senate – took a toll on his family and left his mother resentful of all the money spent on campaigns.

Brown attended Lafayette High School in Lexington, where he was a seventeen-time letterman in various sports.

During one summer, his father expressed disappointment that he had decided to spend the summer selling vacuum cleaners instead of working on a road construction crew with the rest of his football teammates.

Motivated by his father's disapproval, Brown averaged $1,000 in monthly commissions from vacuum cleaner sales.

He briefly competed for the U.S. Senate after his gubernatorial term in the 1984 election but withdrew from the race after only six weeks, citing health issues.

He continued to invest in business ventures, the most high profile of which was Kenny Rogers Roasters, a wood-roasted chicken restaurant he founded with country music star Kenny Rogers.

Brown married three times, the second time to former Miss America Phyllis George.

Among his children are news anchor Pamela Ashley Brown and former Secretary of State of Kentucky John Young Brown III.