John Y. Brown, Jr, known best for building Kentucky Fried Chicken into a worldwide restaurant chain and serving as Kentucky’s 55th governor, died November 21, 2022, surrounded by his loving family at the age of 88.
He was born December 28, 1933 in Lexington, KY, the son of famed Kentucky trial lawyer, state legislator and US Congressman, John Y Brown, Sr and Dorothy Inman Brown. He was pre-deceased by Betty McCann, Dorothy Sims, Diana Busby, and Pamela Brown.
In college, John Y, as he was affectionally known, distinguished himself as one of Encyclopedia Britannica’s top salesmen in the country, paying his way through college and law school at the University of Kentucky. During this time, he married Ellie Durall in 1960.
He was an avid sportsman lettering in 17 sports in high school and played number two on UK’s golf team behind future Master’s champion, Gay Brewer.
John Y initially practiced law with his father. In Lexington, the law office was called, Brown and Son. In Louisville, it was Brown and Father. Several years later in 1964, John Y left the law and, with investor Jack Massey, purchased Kentucky Fried Chicken from Harland Sanders. Over the next seven years, Brown served as CEO of KFC transforming it into an international fast food chain that was briefly the largest fast food service in the world before selling to Heublein, Inc. in 1971.
John Y was a proud Kentuckian and loved promoting his home state every chance he could. He took great satisfaction during his KFC years that Colonel Sanders became one of the three most recognized faces in the world and Kentucky became a household name.
Brown was a serial entrepreneur, helping start many other fast-food businesses over the course of the next four decades, including Ollies Trolley, Kenny Rogers Roasters, Buckheads, Roadhouse Grill and many others.
In 2009, Harvard Business School named Brown as one of the top 200 American business leaders of the 20th century alongside business luminaries like Ray Kroc, Sam Walton, Walt Disney, and Bill Gates.
From 1972-74, John Y launched the Democratic National Telethons to raise millions for the then struggling national Democratic Party. He later was named lifetime honorary treasurer of the Democratic Party.
In 1970 Brown was part of a group of Louisville businessmen who purchased the Kentucky Colonels basketball team of the American Basketball Association. By 1973, Brown was the majority owner and turned the Colonels management over to his wife, Ellie Brown, and an all-female board of directors. This was a first in professional sports and over the next two years, the Kentucky Colonels broke ticket sale records and won the ABA championship. The Kentucky Colonels challenged the then NBA champions, the Golden State Warriors, to a single championship game for $1 million but the Warriors declined.
The Colonels folded when the ABA merged with the NBA in 1976. Brown became part-owner of the NBA’s Buffalo Braves that same year and the following year traded the Buffalo Braves franchise for the Boston Celtics before selling his interest in 1979 to run for governor of Kentucky.
In 1979, Brown married CBS sportscaster and former Miss America Phyllis George. Just weeks after their nuptials, John Y announced he was running for governor. The couple ran an energetic media-savvy campaign with the slogan “Running government like a business” leading to Brown becoming Kentucky’s 55th governor.
As governor, Brown brought in top Kentucky business leaders as cabinet secretaries and created a more diverse cabinet than previous administrations. He cut government by 22% and introduced reforms to install competitive bidding and reduce patronage. He created innovative programs that still exist today, such as the Governor’s Scholars program. Perhaps his greatest legacy as governor is using his business and marketing skills to promote Kentucky nationally and abroad – both Kentucky’s unique products as well as attracting major businesses like UPS. The Courier-Journal summed up his administration as “wholly honorable” and praised efficiencies and many business-like approaches.
Brown joked that of all his accomplishments as governor, the one he was remembered most for was creating the UK and UL Dream Game and wearing a half-blue and half-red sport coat to the first game.
Brown was also a philanthropist who built the Pamela Brown Auditorium at Louisville’s Actor’s Theatre in honor of his sister and helped fund the downtown Louisville YMCA. He also helped establish the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky and was instrumental in creating the Muhammad Ali Center.
Apart from his business, political and philanthropic endeavors, John Y’s happiest times were being surrounded by family. He is survived by five children: entrepreneur Lincoln Brown, CNN anchor Pamela Brown, with Phyllis George Brown. And then former secretary of state, John Y Brown III, Lexington kindergarten teacher, Sissy Brown and real estate developer, Sandy Steier, with Ellie Moore, 12 grandchildren, and longtime partner Mary Ellen Wheeler.
Brown will lie in state from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Tuesday, with his family hosting a public visitation in the rotunda from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m. The public is invited to attend.
A private memorial will follow on Wednesday, which the public will be able to view on Kentucky Educational Television and ket.org.
In lieu of flowers, the family is asking for donations to Sanders Brown Center on Aging, which Brown helped found, or the Kentucky Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame, 348 East Main St., Lexington, KY 40507: Kentucky Entrepreneur Hall of Fame
Obituary courtesy of: MILWARD FUNERAL DIRECTORS, LEXINGTON KENTUCKY
