Raymond L. Danner | Headed Shoney's, 83

Raymond L. Danner Sr., 83, a businessman who helped build the restaurant chain Shoney's, died Saturday of cancer at his Nashville home, said Beth Courtney, a spokeswoman for his firm, the Danner Co. He formed the company after retiring in 1987 as Shoney's chairman.

Shoney's was started by Alex Schoenbaum in 1947 with one drive-in restaurant in Charleston, W. Va. In 1959, Mr. Danner acquired the franchise rights for Shoney's Big Boy and opened his first restaurant in Madison, Tenn.

For years, the Nashville-based company was a darling of the restaurant industry and Wall Street, expanding rapidly and diversifying broadly. At its peak, Shoney's was one of the largest restaurant chains in the world, operating 1,600 stores and producing annual sales that surpassed $800 million.

- AP