Sunday, October 19, 2025
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Sixty Years of Flavor: Remembering Shelbyville’s Original KFC
The well-known KFC bucket sign is attached at 510 E. Broadway, Shelbyville, when the store opened in 1965. | photo provided
When Shelbyville’s Kentucky Fried Chicken opened its doors on Oct. 21, 1965, Levi and Anne Wethington couldn’t have imagined they were launching what would become one of the community’s most enduring restaurants. Sixty years later, their daughter Mary Ann Wethington remembers that first day as “pretty wonderful” with corporate representatives on hand, but not the Colonel himself.
“He stayed away,” she said. “He wanted it to be Mom and Dad’s day, which impressed me even then.”
Levi and Anne were both Kentucky natives, he from Casey County and she from Pulaski County, who met after moving north. The two attended Greenwood’s First Baptist Church, where their courtship began, fittingly, with food
“He took one bite of her fried apple pies and said, ‘That’s the woman I’m marrying,’” Mary Ann said.
The two married soon after and raised three children: Pete, Mary Ann and Elizabeth Sue, “Susie.”
After years in food service, including managing restaurants and cutting meat for Standard Food Stores, Levi was ready to branch out. In the early 1960s, the couple purchased a diner in downtown Greenwood.
“It was everything you’d see in old movies,” Mary Ann said. “Men came to drink coffee in the morning, and high school students came in the afternoons.”
She often worked alongside her parents, stacking wooden crates so she could reach the dishwasher. “I didn’t want to stay home with a babysitter.”
In 1965, Levi and Anne signed a franchise agreement with Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation to open Shelbyville’s official “KFC Take Home” at 510 E. Broadway, the site of today’s Papa John’s.
“There was no eating in at that time,” Mary Ann explained.
Their contract, still preserved in family files, bears Colonel Harland Sanders’ signature and lists trademarks such as “Tender and Tasty” and “North America’s Hospitality Dish.”
“When they got their franchise, Mom and Dad went down to the Colonel’s house and sat at the dining room table with him and Claudia (Sanders),” she said. “They talked it all out and shook hands; no attorneys, no nothing. Just a handshake.”
That handshake, true to Sanders’ “word is his bond” reputation, became the foundation of the Wethingtons’ business.
Operating hours ran from 11 a.m. to 9 p.m. (10 p.m. on weekends). The restaurant’s giant bucket sign, hoisted into place by a crane at Vine and Broadway, quickly became a local landmark.
“People pulled over just to watch it be installed,” Mary Ann recalled.
Buckets sold for $3.75 and 21-piece barrels for $4.95.
The restaurant was a true family operation. “Everyone worked,” she said.
When Mary Ann married in 1969, her father came straight from work in his obligatory white shirt and pants.
“He stayed at the store until he had to leave,” she said. “He did take off for the wedding, but he missed a lot of stuff because he was (working). But none of us questioned it. That’s just the way it had to be.”
As fast food grew in Shelbyville, Levi welcomed the competition.
“All of Dad’s friends said, ‘Oh my God, Levi, what’s McDonald’s going to do to you?’ He said, ‘You know, success breeds success. We’ll all thrive in this together.’ And sure enough, that’s just about the way it happened.”
Colonel Sanders himself occasionally visited the Shelbyville store while traveling through Indiana. He once invited Anne to serve as his escort at the local Salvation Army building dedication and later asked Mary Ann to ride with him on the KFC float in the 1976 Indianapolis Bicentennial Parade.
Years later, Mary Ann received a telegram announcing Sanders’ death, the only telegram she ever got.
“It was from corporate,” she said. “That’s how you got news fast back then. Who even knows what a Western Union Telegram is anymore?”
The restaurant endured long hours, occasional hardships, and even an armed robbery in the 1970s, when a young man fled with about $600 after holding up waitress Carla Land.
“When the guy ran out the door, she turned around and said, ‘Pete, we’ve been robbed.’ He went out the back door chasing the guy, but he didn’t catch him,” Mary Ann said.
Her father later told Pete, “That was very brave, but don’t you ever do that again.”
In time, the Wethingtons expanded their operations to include four additional locations. Levi sold the local franchise in the early 1980s.
Anne passed away in 2000 after what her daughter described as “a perfect day in the garden.” Levi followed a few years later. Both, Mary Ann said, left behind more than a restaurant; they left a standard.
“They were a team,” she said. “They went to everything together. They believed success wasn’t about getting rich. It was about doing things right.”
Below: Left, then clockwise: Jack Hignite and Mary Ann visit with Colonel Sanders, circa 1970; Levi and Anne Wethington attend a national KFC convention; the Colonel and Anne Wethington chat during his visit to dedicate the Salvation Army building; the Wethingtons work in the store, with employee Lillian Raney at the door; a newspaper ad announcing Oct. 21, 1965, as opening day; and the Colonel and Mary Ann participate in the 1976 Bicentennial Parade in Indianapolis.”
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NOTEBOOK:
Crews will begin repairing several county roads surrounding the Speedway Solar Project starting Monday, Oct. 20, under an agreement between Shelby County and Desri, which owns the solar facility. Work will include milling, patching, pipe replacement, widening, and resurfacing on roads such as County Roads 500E, 600N, 625E, 700E and 750E. Most work zones will be closed to through traffic, though flaggers will manage flow on CR500E. Crews plan to work weekdays from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., with completion targeted by Thanksgiving, weather permitting.
Shelbyville native Julia has been promoted to Weekday Morning Anchor for WTWO in Terre Haute, where she has worked on-air for the past year and a half. Julia will co-anchor the morning show alongside David Shepherd and Julie Henricks, succeeding longtime anchor Jen Thompson. Her new schedule begins Monday with broadcasts airing 5:30 to 7 a.m. and again at noon.
Shelbyville High School’s Wyatt Armstrong and Aiden Smith fell in a three-set match to Mt. Vernon’s Bryndan Wylie and Tate Cougill in the IHSAA individual doubles regional.
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HOOSIER NEWS: The Indianapolis Airport Authority Board on Oct. 17 unanimously approved the $10.8 million sale of the Indianapolis Downtown Heliport to the city, marking a major step toward redeveloping the 51 S. New Jersey St. site. The Federal Aviation Administration agreed last December to close the heliport, citing declining use and financial inefficiency. Mayor Joe Hogsett has not announced specific plans for the property, though the site has been linked to the city’s pursuit of a Major League Soccer franchise. State officials have not yet advanced a special tax district needed to finance a potential stadium, and Gov. Mike Braun said in June that the project “didn’t pencil out financially” at the time. The Capital Improvement Board continues to prepare in case Indianapolis secures an MLS team. (IBJ)
NATIONAL NEWS: Scam texts have become an enormously lucrative industry, with criminal organizations operating out of China reaping over $1 billion in the past three years. The volume of scam messages claiming that the recipient has a past-due toll payment is 3.5 times higher than it was in January 2024; Americans reported getting 330,000 such toll scam messages in a single day, according to Proofpoint. The “innovation” behind the scam is a new trick allowing criminals to take a stolen card number volunteered by a mark, attach that to a Google or Apple Wallet in Asia, then share it with co-conspirators in the U.S. to make purchases. (Numlock/Wall Street Journal)
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YELLOW BOOK LOOK-BACK
1973
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This Day in Shelby County History
Local headlines reported on or around this date in Shelby County history. Selections are curated by The Addison Times from Shelby County Public Library Genealogy Department materials.
2005: Community members remembered Leroy Whitcher, longtime Shelbyville civic leader and executive director of Shelby County Life Long Learning, for his decades of service and generosity. Whitcher’s unexpected death had occurred a day after he and his wife and several friends, including Jim Sleeth, had attended the latest Shelby Community Theatre production. Whitcher spent 41 years with Freudenberg-NOK before retiring in 2003 and was active in local causes including the Jaycees, Blue River Foundation, and education programs. Friends described him as “the bricks and mortar” of his workplace, which included a post-retirement job as executive director of Shelby County Life Long Learning, and someone always seeking to make Shelbyville a better place.
1995: Trucks with semitrailers would have to use Fair and Glenn avenues through Walkerville until the city was able to widen another route, the Board of Works ruled. Mayor Bob Williams said he would be working on a plan to widen and improve the pavement on Minster Drive and Alice Street.
Members of The Legends Tour musical group, Curt Walters, Pat Horine and Pat Brunner, planned a Friday night benefit concert at Poochie’s, 57 E. Locust St., to support Rick Phillips, a 22-year Shelbyville Police Department veteran awaiting a heart transplant. Brunner, a former classmate of Phillips, organized the event after learning of his illness. The concert was set to feature stand-up comedian Ty Wilson and music inspired by the Kingston Trio.
1985: Shelbyville Mayor Dan Theobald said that the city was not actively recruiting the new Toyota automobile plant planned for the United States, despite statewide reports suggesting otherwise. Theobald said Shelbyville would be open to discussions but had no contact with Toyota officials and had made no attempts to lure the company. Shelbyville had gained similar publicity earlier in the year when it was mentioned as a possible site for a Mitsubishi-Chrysler plant later built in Illinois.
1975: A 25-mile bike ride was held to raise funds for the Indiana 4-H Foundation and the Shelby County 4-H program. The event began at 1 p.m. at Shelbyville High School. Shown planning the route for the sponsoring Shelby County 4-H Council were County Extension Agent Robert Brunsman, Kristi Fix, Mrs. Albert Callahan of the 4-H Advisory Council, and Peggy Phillips, county extension agent–youth. Application forms had been available at Waldron and Fairland banks, the county extension office, and local bike shops.
1965: The flag-twirling and baton ensembles of Southwestern High School received first division honors in district contests at Southport. Flag twirlers were Connie Martin, Nancy Stroup and Karen Sandefur. Majorettes were Connie Martin, Nisa Waltz, Laura McCain, and Patty Hamner.
1955: Construction crews once faced difficulties, including a cave-in beneath U.S. Highway 52 west of Morristown, while installing more than 25 miles of gas pipeline through Shelby County for the American Louisiana Pipeline Co. The pipeline extended from southwestern Louisiana northward to Detroit, passing through Shelby County.
The site of a Democratic rally was changed to the National Guard Armory after heating issues arose at the fairgrounds 4-H building, where the event had originally been scheduled. The decision was announced by City Committee Chairman Roscoe Bullard, who also reported that 125 people attended a Fifth Ward Democratic meeting to discuss upcoming city election issues and meet party candidates.
1945: Shelbyville police officers reported picking up several boys who had taken window-soaping pranks too far. The youths were turned over to school officials, then sent back to clean the windows they had soaped, a solution that “worked out fine,” according to police. Authorities warned that any youngsters caught committing vandalism would be reported to both school officials and parents. Those responsible for property damage were to be prosecuted, and parents could be held accountable as well.
1935: The Shelby County Council voted 5-2 to approve an appropriation of $136,404 for the county’s share of a new courthouse, ensuring the project’s completion under the Public Works Administration. The PWA agreed to fund 45 percent of the total cost, with the building and furnishings not to exceed $248,000. Councilmen John Scheffler and Oliver O. Olinger opposed the measure, while Council Chairman Joseph Beyer and County Auditor Claud X. Mohr supported it. The new courthouse would replace the existing structure once demolition and construction contracts were finalized.
1925: A scheduled performance by Kryl’s Band at the Cadle Tabernacle in Indianapolis was canceled after a payment dispute. According to reports, F.J. Rembusch of Shelbyville, who had leased the venue for the evening, paid $100 of the $320 rental fee but failed to pay the remaining balance of $220. When payment was not received, the owners of the building refused to open the doors, and the concert did not take place. Crowds gathered outside the tabernacle expecting the performance, but after learning of the situation, the band members left.
1915: Isaac Heck sold 494 acres of land in southwestern Bartholomew County for $37,600. Heck, who had previously developed property at Five Points, had traded the site to Roy Templeton of Indianapolis for the Bartholomew County acreage. He improved the land by planting 1,500 fruit trees and establishing a strong stand of alfalfa, giving the property a well-kept appearance before selling it to Charles B. Sprague of Illinois.
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OBITUARIES
None today.
Colonel Sanders was a Hoosier, not a Kentuckian. My wife had lunch at Claudia's house in the late 1970's. Great fried chicken!!!