Jack Pirtle's Chicken

Just like the chicken that bears his name, Jack Pirtle was one of a kind. Growing up poor in Toone, Tennessee, he was splitting logs for railroad ties when he was little more than a boy. He was a hard worker, from the start of his life to the end, so it was only fitting that he marketed first his sit-down home cooking eateries and later his chicken restaurants to the working man. Jack worked as a millwright, a mechanic, a brakeman for the railroad and a maintenance man before he entered the restaurant business at age 43. His first restaurant stayed open 24 hours because the nearby Firestone plant did, too. Its fair to say that he expected the same work ethic from his employees that he exhibited, but he never expected more than he was willing to give himself. If you knew what to do and did it like he wanted, you never had a problem with Mr. Jack, said Carrie Watts, one of the numerous longtime employees hired by Jack Pirtle and still working for his son, Cordell, today. Shirley Benson, who has been with the company since 1970, recalled that it wasnt always so simple. I thought I knew what I was doing, Id sure done it enough, but one day he told me to stop working and he took over. He said Go sit under the tree, and I stayed out there till my shift was over, she said. But she laughs a little when she tells the story. Jack was a man who knew one way to do things-his way-and everyone around him knew it. He was a man with little education but with a natural talent for business and a true gift for mechanics. He not only designed the elaborate frying and grease recapturing system used in his restaurants, he built them. He also built the early buildings himself-he couldnt afford to have anyone else do it-and he built the only house he ever owned with his own hands, too. When he was impressed with a poultry saw, instead of just buying a few, he built six-one for each store. He employed mostly women in his stores. Flora Hearvey, whos worked for Jack Pirtles f