Florence Pitcher, 92, who with her husband opened a Kentucky Fried Chicken franchise more than 40 years ago in Glen Ellyn, died Tuesday, Feb. 12, in Harvard Care Center, in Harvard, Ill. Mrs. Pitcher was born in Chicago and at age 19 married Edwin Pitcher. The couple moved to Wisconsin, where they opened and ran a resort. A few years later they moved back to Illinois, settling in Wheaton then in Winfield. The couple then opened a Kentucky Fried Chicken restaurant in Glen Ellyn, said Mrs. Pitcher’s daughter Constance Brady. After a few years, they opened their own business, West Chicago Restaurant, where Mrs. Pitcher worked as a cook. When her husband died in 1966, she took a job as a cook at Central DuPage Hospital, where she worked until she was 67. She lived in the Colony Park apartments in Carol Stream for 20 years. She moved to her daughter’s home in Marengo in 1996. “She was tiny and mighty,” her daughter said. Other survivors include a son, Edwin; two daughters, LaVern Liner and Rose King; two sisters, Ann Starnes and Dorothy Parker; 15 grandchildren; 26 great-grandchildren; and two great-great-grandchildren. Services have been held.
