Background
Vernon Carver Rudolph was born in Marshall County, Kentucky.
founder of Krispy Kreme Doughnuts
Vernon Carver Rudolph was born in Marshall County, Kentucky.
When he graduated high school, he went to Paducah, Kentucky with his uncle.
He was the oldest of four children born to Plumie and Rethie Rudolph. In 1933, Rudolph"s uncle bought a doughnut shop and recipe for yeast-raised donuts from a French federal employee named Joe LeBeau. This all occurred during the middle of the Great Depression, so they moved to Nashville, Tennessee to see if they could get better business there and secure their financial future.
In 1936. his father opened another shop in Charleston, West Virginia and a few years later, a third shop in Atlanta, Georgia.
In the summer of 1937, determined to own his own Krispy Kreme shop, Rudoph decided to move to Winston-Salem, North Carolina, home to the R. J. Reynolds Tobacco Company, as he was smoking a Camel cigarette. He rented a building across from Salem College and Academy, and on July 13, 1937, using that original recipe.
His first customers were local grocery stores, but people began to stop by the store asking if they could buy hot doughnuts. In the 1940s, he sold franchises and in 1947, he founded the Krispy Kreme Corporation, becoming Chairman and President.
Personal life
They adopted a baby girl, Patricia Ann, in 1943.
They had four children, Vernon Carver Junior., Sanford, Curtis, and Beverly.