Kristen Pierce-Sherrod, CEO of the beloved Chicago chain Harold’s Chicken, has died, according to an announcement shared by family and company franchises on social media Wednesday.
“The family extends their sincere gratitude for the outpouring of prayers and condolences,” the announcement read.
How and when Pierce-Sherrod died was not immediately clear.
Harold’s Chicken was founded on Chicago’s South Side in 1950 by Pierce-Sherrod’s father, the late Harold Pierce. The restaurant that started it all, then called H&H, specialized in dumplings and chicken feet.
“When he started, it was the whole chicken,” Pierce-Sherrod told the Tribune in 2019.
Seventy years later, the venture has expanded to dozens of franchises nationwide.
Pierce-Sherrod’s father, who went on to become the city’s chicken king, was born in Alabama and already owned a family business — a grocery store — with her grandfather before moving to Chicago.“He would tell stories about how the preacher would come to the house on Sundays and eat up all the chicken,” Pierce-Sherrod remembered six years ago. “He said then, when I get older, I’m going to have my own chicken place and I’m going to be able to eat as much chicken as I want.”
It was her mother, the late Willa Pierce, who played a major role in the fried chicken business expanding beyond Chicago.
With the news of Pierce-Sherrod’s death, condolences have started to pour out on social media.
“Gone too soon, rest in peace Kristen,” The Wieners Circle posted to X Wednesday night. “Our condolences go out to the Pierce family and to everyone at Harold’s Chicken, a 70 year old Chicago institution.”
Southwest Side Ald. Raymond Lopez also took to X to address Pierce-Sherrod’s death.
“Another icon has been called home,” he wrote. “I had the honor of meeting Kristen when we opened a new Harold’s Chicken in Chicago Lawn. May her and her family legacy live on in all of Chicagoans.”
