Raymond L. Danner Sr., who founded and grew restaurant chains such as Shoney's and Captain D's — among other businesses — by making customer service his key focus, died Saturday at his Nashville home of a brain tumor. He was 83.
His was a true rags-to-riches story.
Raised in a poor family in Louisville, Ky., during the Great Depression, Mr. Danner began working as a paperboy at age 10. He went on to operate businesses including a grocery store, a bowling alley and a drive-in theater before going into the restaurant business, where he made his mark.
He also helped to start businesses in industries ranging from auto dealerships and golf courses to manufacturing and management of investments. Along the way, Mr. Danner lifted colleagues to entrepreneurial and financial success.
"It's the classic Horatio Alger story," said Francis Guess, executive vice president with The Danner Co., which Mr. Danner started after retiring as Shoney's chairman. "He said to me one day, he didn't run toward being successful and wealthy. He ran away from being poor."
Starting in 1959 as a franchisee with one store at Madison Square Shopping Center, Mr. Danner merged his Danner Foods Inc. with the company Alex Schoenbaum started as Big Boy Inc. to create Shoney's Inc.
Shoney's grew into one of the nation's largest restaurant chains but then withered because of competition from other large casual-dining chains and changing leadership after Mr. Danner left in 1989.
Hands-on managerAt Shoney's, Mr. Danner was known as a hands-on manager and for a philosophy of looking at a business through the eyes of customers.
He would visit stores unannounced and was known to demonstrate the right way to mop the floor if he felt that it wasn't being done right.
Early in Mr. Danner's career, legend has it that on one Thanksgiving Day as one of his restaurants ran low on turkeys, he got the bird from his family's dinner table and served it to Shoney's customers.
There's also the story of Mr. Danner, co-owner of Hermitage Golf Course, fetching water when he found out one day in 1989 from fans who had arrived for the LPGA Sara Lee Classic tournament that there was no water for them.
"He capitalized the 'H' in hospitality," Guess said, citing as example a routine experience: "I couldn't go out with the man — even at other people's restaurants, he would want to stop and pick up the trash."
Outside business, Mr. Danner's other loves were golf and music.
Bobby Garrison, his best friend and a fellow golfer, played in a band with Mr. Danner. "He said: 'I couldn't make enough money playing that saxophone, so I had to try something else,' and so he went into the restaurant business," recalled Garrison, who played the trumpet.
Garrison said Mr. Danner's legacy included helping others who were willing to work hard become millionaires. "He taught so many people how to do things that they would never have been able to do."
Golfer, philanthropistMike Eller, president and co-owner of Hermitage Golf Course, credits Mr. Danner, whom he met while offering golf lessons at another course, for making him a better businessman.
"He always liked the idea of owning a golf course," Eller said. "It was probably his only hobby outside of working seven days a week."
Besides Shoney's, Mr. Danner also helped to start businesses such as the Captain D's seafood chain, which once was part of Shoney's; car dealership Neill-Sandler and investment firm Lee, Danner & Bass.
Through The Danner Co., he continued to own restaurants, including some Nashville-area locations of Davy Crockett's Roadhouse and fast-food chain Wendy's. "Those investments will be going through a period of transition depending on what the family wants to do," Guess said.
Mr. Danner was also known for his philanthropy, including charitable giving through the Danner Foundation. He was a founding donor of the Vanderbilt Owen Graduate School of Management, honorary chairman of the Sara Lee Classic and member of the boards of trust for Middle Tennessee State University and Franklin Road Academy.
Survivors include his wife, Judith Boyer Danner; two daughters, Donna Danner Wilson and Gail Danner Greil; and two sons, Roger A. Danner and Raymond Louis Danner Jr.; and five grandsons.
Visitation with the family will be 4-7 p.m. Tuesday at 815 N. Curtiswood Lane in Nashville. Graveside services will be held at 2 p.m. Wednesday at the Danner family cemetery at Parkland Farm, 3071 U.S. 31 in Spring Hill.
In lieu of flowers, the Danner family requests that contributions be made to the Nashville State Community College Foundation.
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