By Greg Higgins

When Col. Sanders came to the Battlefords

Nov 17, 2016 | 5:00 AM

A photo of the iconic Colonel Harland Sanders in North Battleford was recently circulating around social media and causing a lot of discussion on whether it was a fake or not.

The owner of the KFC in the city not only confirmed the photo’s legitimacy, but said it wasn’t his only visit.

Herb Sparrow bought the KFC franchise, which still stands in the city, in 1954. It was the third KFC in all of Canada. His son Rob Sparrow now owns and operates the restaurant and said the Colonel visited North Battleford multiple times.

“Between 1961 and 1989 when he died he would have been here three, four or five times,” Sparrow said. “The first time I met him I would have been three or four years old… he used to come over to the house and he was just a fabulous person.”

Sparrow said the colonel was amazing to all the employees and when he came into the store he would greet all the patrons eating there. He said Sanders was totally concerned about the KFC world and regularly visited all locations.

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Another rumor regarding the picture Sparrow dispelled was the parade Sanders was pictured taking part in.

“That picture would have been taken during the Fair Parade,” Sparrow said. “If he was here at that time we would just put him into the parade. The Fair Parade usually gets a big reception anyway but he was an icon. I saw people commenting [on Facebook] and saying it [the picture] wasn’t real and I commented back and said it was. It was really funny.”

Sparrow said it was a simple story of how the North Battleford KFC came to be. His father simply went to Toronto to meet with Sanders during one of his visits and the franchise was set up over a handshake.

Greg Higgins is battlefordsNOW’s city municipal affairs and health reporter. He can be reached at ghiggins@jpbg.ca or tweet him @realgreghiggins.