Harry Joseph Sonneborn, 77, the first President and CEO of McDonald's Corporation, died at his Mobile, Alabama home on Sept. 21, 1992, with his wife Aloyis Lee Sonneborn by his bedside holding his hand.
Sonneborn was vice president of Tastee Freez in the 1950s when he learned about McDonald's. Ray Kroc, a former salesman of milkshake mixers, had bought their hamburger franchise name in 1952 from Dick and Maurice McDonald, who had started the chain in San Bernardino, California in 1940, paying each of the brothers 1.5 million dollars.
Sonneborn, who arranged for the loan for Ray Kroc to finally buy out the McDonald brothers in the early 1950's, (in what would today be called a hostel corporate takeover) was called by Kroc ''The financial wizard of the operation." Sonneborn set up the franchise system that today makes McDonald's one of the largest holders of real estate in the world. He was president of the firm from 1959 to 1967 and became a multimillionaire as a result. Sonneborn, was quoted as saying, "We are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell fifteen-cent hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants can pay us our rent."
A former vice president of finances at Tastee-Freez, Sonneborn approached Ray Kroc with the concept of Kroc owning the land that McDonald outlets were to be built on and then leasing that land to the franchisee. This business model led to the explosive growth of McDonald's; the real estate deals were handled through a specially formed corporation named McDonald's Franchise Realty Corp. The "Sonneborn model" persists to this day within the corporation and might have been the most important financial decision in the company's history. McDonald's present-day real estate holdings represent $37.7Bn on its balance sheet, about 99 percent of the company's assets and about 35 percent of its global revenue.
Kroc appointed Sonneborn as McDonald's first president and chief executive officer in 1959, which he held until he resigned in 1967, due to falling out with Kroc. Ray Kroc insisted on continuing expansion, whereas Sonneborn held the view that the country was heading into a recession and should put a stop on constructing new stores. Kroc took the title of President and CEO after Sonneborn resigned, sold his sizable block of stock, then refused to ever again speak about McDonalds.
Sonneborn was one of the most respected collectors of Americana and historical documents in the world. At one time, he owned one of only two annotated copies of the U.S. Constitution as well as original copies of the constitutions of all the states. He also owned the original document from German President Paul von Hindenburg making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
''He was a very serious man with a dry sense of humor,'' his wife, Aloyis, said. ''He was a real love.''
Survivors, besides his second wife, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn, including two adult children by his first marriage to marriage to June Edith Kepler, a son, Dr. Robert Sonneborn; a daughter, Judith Sonneborn Bach, and four grandchildren. Graveside services were held in Mobile, Alabama at Pine Crest Cemetery, with Pine Crest Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Historical Note 1:
Harry J. Sonneborn is played by actor B.J Novac in the 2017 movie "The Founder" in which Michael Keaton plays the role of Ray Kroc. The movie pulls no punches concerning Ray Kroc being a hyperactive often ruthless ambitious man. The movie is the true story of how small-time salesman Ray Kroc met brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald when he was selling them six mixers for the small restaurant chain that they'd started on their own. Impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making and serving the food, he saw the potential to make a highly profitable franchise. Kroc manages to talk the brothers into letting him get involved and is eventually able to pull the company out from under them, despite opposition from all sides. He had help in doing that from Harry Sonneborn.
Despite "The Founder" motion picture theatrics, according to actual McDonalds Corporation historical records… In 1956, Ray Kroc met Harry J. Sonneborn, VP of finance for Tastee-Freez, who offered an idea to accelerate the growth and investment grade of Kroc's planned McDonald's operation: Own the real estate that future franchises would be built on. Kroc hired Sonneborn and his plan was executed through forming a separate company called, Franchise Realty Corporation, which was solely designed to hold McDonald's real estate. The new company signed leases, and took out mortgages for both lands and buildings, in turn then passing these costs on to the franchisee with a 20-40% markup, and a reduced initial deposit of $950. The "Sonneborn model" of real estate ownership within the franchise persists to this day, possibly being the most important financial decision in the company's history.
In 1959, Harry Sonneborn became the President and CEO of McDonald's. That same year, the company opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the total to 102 locations. By 1961 Kroc's conflict over the vision of the company with the founding brothers had grown to an unbearable extent, and he asked them how much money they wanted to leave their business to him entirely. The brothers asked for $2.7 million (about $21.6 million in today's dollars), which Kroc did not have. Harry Sonneborn was able to raise the money, and Kroc bought the founding brothers out. This purchase laid the groundwork to positioning the company for an initial public offering, (IPO) and furthering the aim at making McDonald's the number one fast-food chain in the country. The exact process of how the McDonald brother's company was sold is not well recorded; it is depicted as hostile takeover by Ray Kroc in the 2017 movie "The Founder," but that portrayal is disputed, and interviews of the time speak of a more voluntary transition. However, the brothers complained in later years that they were cheated, once the value of publicly traded stock went through the roof.
In 1965, McDonald's Corporation went public, and Harry Sonneborn was invited to ring the opening bell on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He insisted that his second wife, Aloyis, (that he married on October 23, 1964, in Mobile, Alabama) accompany him into the all-male domain of the stock exchange. The exchange relented and allowed her in. Aloyis Sonneborn is the only female other than Queen Elizabeth II of England to ever be allowed on the exchange's trading floor.
Kroc and Sonneborn had a falling-out over expansion of McDonalds when Sonneborn thought the country was about to go into a recession. Kroc pushed Sonneborn to continue rapid expansion, but by that time Sonneborn owned a large block of McDonald's stock and was afraid of losing his fortune. He resigned in 1967 and refused to talk about McDonalds for the rest of his life. Kroc took over the title of CEO and President after Sonneborn left. Sonneborn had sold his stock for three million fearing Kroc's push for continued expansion would cause the stock to plummet. The recession never happened, and Sonneborn selling his block of McDonald's stock was one of the few times that Harry Sonneborn was ever wrong about financial speculations. Had he retained his stock he would have easily become a billionaire by the 1980s, rather than being a multimillionaire, worth approximately $100-million-dollars. Below is why Sonneborn never became a billionaire...
Before the company went public, common shares of McDonald's stock were offered at $22.50 per share. After Sonneborn resigned and sold his stock in 1967 by the end of the next day's trading, the price had risen to $30. This in itself was good performance. But then the stock really took off. It was not long after Sonneborn sold his shares in fear that a recession was about to begin, that the stock splits began to occur. A block of 100 shares purchased for $2,250 in 1965 was worth, after 12 stock splits post 1967 (that increased the original 100 shares to 74,360 shares), the original $2,250 investment would have ended up being worth over $5.7 million. That is an enormous rarely heard of increase in value. Doing the same math Sonneborn's original block of 133 shares would have been worth $1.3 billion dollars ten years later in 1977 had he held onto it.
Historical Note 2:
Harry J. Sonneborn was born as, Harry Morris Joseph, to Jewish immigrants, Mark Harry Joseph and Minnie Greenbaum Joseph in Evansville, Indiana. After the car crash death of his parents in 1921 when Sonneborn was age 5, he was legally adopted by his aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn of New York City, and his name was legally changed to; Harry Joseph Sonneborn. They were Jews that belonged to the liberal Reform Jewish movement, known outside the United States as Progressive Judaism. Harry Sonneborn got his first job with Sonneborn Brother Clothiers in the Garment District of Manhattan (his adopting father was a full partner).
After he married, he moved to Gary, Indiana where he worked as a salesman for Arthur Winer Inc., (the nation's first wholesale producer of men's pants).
In 1952 he moved his family to Illinois to work in the corporate offices of Tastee Freez, where he worked his way up to vice president of finance.
There is speculation as to what actually transpired within Harry Sonneborn's family, due to Sonneborn and his three sisters being split up and sent to different members of their extended family. We do know that the Sonneborn's moved Harry to their home in New York City as is demonstrated by the 1930 United States Census below.
Historical Note 3:
Harry Sonneborn
United States Census, 1930
Name: Harry Sonneborn
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Manhattan (Districts 0251-0500), New York, New York, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 13
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1917
Birthplace: Indiana
Father's Birthplace: Germany
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Son
Sheet Letter: B
Sheet Number: 16
Louis Sonneborn
Household Role, Head, Age 54. Birthplace: Germany (About 1876)
Jeanette Sonneborn
Household Role, Wife, Age 43, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1887)
Harry Sonneborn.
Household Role, Son, Age 13, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1916)
Elizabeth Springman
Household Role, Maid, Age19, Birthplace: Germany (About 1911)
Historical Note 4:
Sonneborn's first marriage 12 December 1938 in Cook, Illinois to June Edith Kepler (Born 1916– Died 2005) produced a son, Robert, and a daughter, Judith. After that marriage to ended in divorce,
Harry Sonneborn married, Aloyis Joan Lee, 24 June 1964 in Mobile, Alabama. She was a McDonald franchisee owning three stores in Mobile, Alabama. Harry discovered from her records at the McDonald's Corporate Offices that she had also had a real estate brokers license. Harry contacted her about the possibility of purchasing land for a fishing camp. She invited him down to Mobile to look at land, and that's how they first met. They immediately hit it off, and soon afterwards they married. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Aloyis remained utterly devoted to Harry until his death due to complications from diabetes September 21, 1992. She was sitting on the side of their bed at their Fowl River Mansion holding his hand when he took his last breath.
Three years later on October 6, 1995, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn married Grover H. Radney of Mobile, Alabama at Perdido Key in Escambia County Florida. Both she and Grover owned summer homes near each other across Mobile Bay. Aloyis on Ono Island, Grover across the canal from Ono Island on Perdido Key just inside the Florida line. Grover was divorced and his former wife resided in their West Mobile Mansion, and Gover in their Perdido Key summer house. Aloyis' marriage to Grover was short lived, ending in divorce in 1999. (Grover Radney died on March 29, 2003.) Aloyis changed her surname back to, Sonneborn, after the divorce, and at age 63 in 1999, Aloyis relisted the huge Fowl River Estate on the market. It sold in 2000. The home, along with two adjacent lots, each with a guest house, was bought by a local businessman for $1.5 million. That was far less that her $7 million asking price for the land and its 17,000 total square foot ultra-contemporary Japanese art deco mansion, 9,420 of which was enclosed living space, and 7,580 square feet of unique open-to-the-air living space.
Aloyis resigned herself to let it go for that low price because she had never received offers anywhere near her $7 Million asking price after having it on the market since the mid 1980's. When the Fowl River Mansion sold a year later in 2000, Aloyis purchased a 5,200 square foot Federal-style mansion in the sought-after Ridgefield subdivision in the Westwood area of Springhill in Mobile, Alabama, and moved there. She founded the Harry J and Aloyis L Sonneborn Charitable Trust to help educate the financially needy and the non-profit's first listed address was her new home in Mobile. She continued to throw lavish sit-down dinner parties there for her friends as she had always done at the Fowl River Mansion. The years rolled on, and by age 82, Aloyis realized the end of her life was near. She sold her house in Springhill and went to live permanently at her vacation house on Ono Island, Alabama, where she died in her bed there. Until just three days before her death she was still active and entertaining her friends. She died on her 85th birthday just as she said she would. She had stated the year before, that if she died tomorrow that life owed her nothing, for it has been a grand ride. (See the "Aloyis Lee Sonneborn" Find-A-Grave page.)
Historical Note 5:
Harry Sonneborn had three biological sisters. The four "Joseph" children were separated, and spread out among family members, when their parents died the auto crash accident in 1921. Mary Greenbaum Joseph Weil 18 Jul 1906 - 19 Jun 1986, was the eldest of the four children, (10 years Harry's senior). She was age 15 at the time of their parent's death and went to Florida. Flora Louise Joseph Nisenbaum 14 October 1914 - 24 May 1983, was age 7 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years older than Harry) She remained in Indiana. Carolyn Jane Joseph Kessler 15 Oct 1918 - 15 Jun 1987 was age 3 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years younger than Harry). She stayed in Indiana. Harry (age 5) went to New York City.
Harry Sonneborn's aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn made their home in Morningside Heights at 401 W 118th St., New York, NY 10027. Nestled between the Upper West Side and Harlem, Morningside Heights had, and still has, the feel of a college town with the metropolitan sensibilities of New York. The neighborhood is home to Columbia University and Barnard College. Young Harry enjoyed the sprawling Riverside Park as well as the picturesque Morningside Park. So, when his aunt and her husband brought 5-year-old Harry Morris Joseph to this beautiful spot in New York City, after Harry's parents died in a car crash, the boy couldn't have asked for a better place to grow up. They legally adopted him, and Harry Joseph Morris became, Harry Joseph Sonneborn.
Harry attended a private school, and after he graduated at 18, he went to work for his adopted father, Lewis Sonneborn. Lewis was a partner with his five brothers that owned; Sonneborn Brother's Clothing, 588 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10012. After working there for a year, Harry began attending Barnard College studying finance and economics.
Harry's adopting mother, Jeanette, died on May 1, 1938. She was buried alongside his adopting father Lewis's eldest brother Leo, and his wife, in Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York. Harry was about to turn 22 following month she died and took her death as his exit cue. With only two years of college finance and economics under his belt, he decided to leave New York after meeting and marrying his first wife June Edith Keppler. Harry and June moved to Gary Indiana to start their family due to a lower cost of living and a higher salary working for Arthur Winer Inc. The 41,000 square foot modern entirely air-conditioned building was located at 855 Taft Street in Gary and was the first plant of its kind to be planned and built expressly for the manufacturing of men's pants, or as they were called in the 40's, 50s and early 60s – slacks!
Harry worked in wholesale sales at Arthur Winer from 1939 until 1952 when Tastee Freez offered Harry a job at their corporate offices in the Chicago metro area where he remained until 1955. His aptitude with finance served him well and after a few years he became their vice president of finance. Then Harry Sonneborn met Ray Kroc in the early part of 1956, and that sealed Harry Sonneborn's place in history.
Sonneborn was vice president of Tastee Freez in the 1950s when he learned about McDonald's. Ray Kroc, a former salesman of milkshake mixers, had bought their hamburger franchise name in 1952 from Dick and Maurice McDonald, who had started the chain in San Bernardino, California in 1940, paying each of the brothers 1.5 million dollars.
Sonneborn, who arranged for the loan for Ray Kroc to finally buy out the McDonald brothers in the early 1950's, (in what would today be called a hostel corporate takeover) was called by Kroc ''The financial wizard of the operation." Sonneborn set up the franchise system that today makes McDonald's one of the largest holders of real estate in the world. He was president of the firm from 1959 to 1967 and became a multimillionaire as a result. Sonneborn, was quoted as saying, "We are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell fifteen-cent hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants can pay us our rent."
A former vice president of finances at Tastee-Freez, Sonneborn approached Ray Kroc with the concept of Kroc owning the land that McDonald outlets were to be built on and then leasing that land to the franchisee. This business model led to the explosive growth of McDonald's; the real estate deals were handled through a specially formed corporation named McDonald's Franchise Realty Corp. The "Sonneborn model" persists to this day within the corporation and might have been the most important financial decision in the company's history. McDonald's present-day real estate holdings represent $37.7Bn on its balance sheet, about 99 percent of the company's assets and about 35 percent of its global revenue.
Kroc appointed Sonneborn as McDonald's first president and chief executive officer in 1959, which he held until he resigned in 1967, due to falling out with Kroc. Ray Kroc insisted on continuing expansion, whereas Sonneborn held the view that the country was heading into a recession and should put a stop on constructing new stores. Kroc took the title of President and CEO after Sonneborn resigned, sold his sizable block of stock, then refused to ever again speak about McDonalds.
Sonneborn was one of the most respected collectors of Americana and historical documents in the world. At one time, he owned one of only two annotated copies of the U.S. Constitution as well as original copies of the constitutions of all the states. He also owned the original document from German President Paul von Hindenburg making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
''He was a very serious man with a dry sense of humor,'' his wife, Aloyis, said. ''He was a real love.''
Survivors, besides his second wife, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn, including two adult children by his first marriage to marriage to June Edith Kepler, a son, Dr. Robert Sonneborn; a daughter, Judith Sonneborn Bach, and four grandchildren. Graveside services were held in Mobile, Alabama at Pine Crest Cemetery, with Pine Crest Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Historical Note 1:
Harry J. Sonneborn is played by actor B.J Novac in the 2017 movie "The Founder" in which Michael Keaton plays the role of Ray Kroc. The movie pulls no punches concerning Ray Kroc being a hyperactive often ruthless ambitious man. The movie is the true story of how small-time salesman Ray Kroc met brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald when he was selling them six mixers for the small restaurant chain that they'd started on their own. Impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making and serving the food, he saw the potential to make a highly profitable franchise. Kroc manages to talk the brothers into letting him get involved and is eventually able to pull the company out from under them, despite opposition from all sides. He had help in doing that from Harry Sonneborn.
Despite "The Founder" motion picture theatrics, according to actual McDonalds Corporation historical records… In 1956, Ray Kroc met Harry J. Sonneborn, VP of finance for Tastee-Freez, who offered an idea to accelerate the growth and investment grade of Kroc's planned McDonald's operation: Own the real estate that future franchises would be built on. Kroc hired Sonneborn and his plan was executed through forming a separate company called, Franchise Realty Corporation, which was solely designed to hold McDonald's real estate. The new company signed leases, and took out mortgages for both lands and buildings, in turn then passing these costs on to the franchisee with a 20-40% markup, and a reduced initial deposit of $950. The "Sonneborn model" of real estate ownership within the franchise persists to this day, possibly being the most important financial decision in the company's history.
In 1959, Harry Sonneborn became the President and CEO of McDonald's. That same year, the company opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the total to 102 locations. By 1961 Kroc's conflict over the vision of the company with the founding brothers had grown to an unbearable extent, and he asked them how much money they wanted to leave their business to him entirely. The brothers asked for $2.7 million (about $21.6 million in today's dollars), which Kroc did not have. Harry Sonneborn was able to raise the money, and Kroc bought the founding brothers out. This purchase laid the groundwork to positioning the company for an initial public offering, (IPO) and furthering the aim at making McDonald's the number one fast-food chain in the country. The exact process of how the McDonald brother's company was sold is not well recorded; it is depicted as hostile takeover by Ray Kroc in the 2017 movie "The Founder," but that portrayal is disputed, and interviews of the time speak of a more voluntary transition. However, the brothers complained in later years that they were cheated, once the value of publicly traded stock went through the roof.
In 1965, McDonald's Corporation went public, and Harry Sonneborn was invited to ring the opening bell on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He insisted that his second wife, Aloyis, (that he married on October 23, 1964, in Mobile, Alabama) accompany him into the all-male domain of the stock exchange. The exchange relented and allowed her in. Aloyis Sonneborn is the only female other than Queen Elizabeth II of England to ever be allowed on the exchange's trading floor.
Kroc and Sonneborn had a falling-out over expansion of McDonalds when Sonneborn thought the country was about to go into a recession. Kroc pushed Sonneborn to continue rapid expansion, but by that time Sonneborn owned a large block of McDonald's stock and was afraid of losing his fortune. He resigned in 1967 and refused to talk about McDonalds for the rest of his life. Kroc took over the title of CEO and President after Sonneborn left. Sonneborn had sold his stock for three million fearing Kroc's push for continued expansion would cause the stock to plummet. The recession never happened, and Sonneborn selling his block of McDonald's stock was one of the few times that Harry Sonneborn was ever wrong about financial speculations. Had he retained his stock he would have easily become a billionaire by the 1980s, rather than being a multimillionaire, worth approximately $100-million-dollars. Below is why Sonneborn never became a billionaire...
Before the company went public, common shares of McDonald's stock were offered at $22.50 per share. After Sonneborn resigned and sold his stock in 1967 by the end of the next day's trading, the price had risen to $30. This in itself was good performance. But then the stock really took off. It was not long after Sonneborn sold his shares in fear that a recession was about to begin, that the stock splits began to occur. A block of 100 shares purchased for $2,250 in 1965 was worth, after 12 stock splits post 1967 (that increased the original 100 shares to 74,360 shares), the original $2,250 investment would have ended up being worth over $5.7 million. That is an enormous rarely heard of increase in value. Doing the same math Sonneborn's original block of 133 shares would have been worth $1.3 billion dollars ten years later in 1977 had he held onto it.
Historical Note 2:
Harry J. Sonneborn was born as, Harry Morris Joseph, to Jewish immigrants, Mark Harry Joseph and Minnie Greenbaum Joseph in Evansville, Indiana. After the car crash death of his parents in 1921 when Sonneborn was age 5, he was legally adopted by his aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn of New York City, and his name was legally changed to; Harry Joseph Sonneborn. They were Jews that belonged to the liberal Reform Jewish movement, known outside the United States as Progressive Judaism. Harry Sonneborn got his first job with Sonneborn Brother Clothiers in the Garment District of Manhattan (his adopting father was a full partner).
After he married, he moved to Gary, Indiana where he worked as a salesman for Arthur Winer Inc., (the nation's first wholesale producer of men's pants).
In 1952 he moved his family to Illinois to work in the corporate offices of Tastee Freez, where he worked his way up to vice president of finance.
There is speculation as to what actually transpired within Harry Sonneborn's family, due to Sonneborn and his three sisters being split up and sent to different members of their extended family. We do know that the Sonneborn's moved Harry to their home in New York City as is demonstrated by the 1930 United States Census below.
Historical Note 3:
Harry Sonneborn
United States Census, 1930
Name: Harry Sonneborn
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Manhattan (Districts 0251-0500), New York, New York, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 13
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1917
Birthplace: Indiana
Father's Birthplace: Germany
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Son
Sheet Letter: B
Sheet Number: 16
Louis Sonneborn
Household Role, Head, Age 54. Birthplace: Germany (About 1876)
Jeanette Sonneborn
Household Role, Wife, Age 43, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1887)
Harry Sonneborn.
Household Role, Son, Age 13, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1916)
Elizabeth Springman
Household Role, Maid, Age19, Birthplace: Germany (About 1911)
Historical Note 4:
Sonneborn's first marriage 12 December 1938 in Cook, Illinois to June Edith Kepler (Born 1916– Died 2005) produced a son, Robert, and a daughter, Judith. After that marriage to ended in divorce,
Harry Sonneborn married, Aloyis Joan Lee, 24 June 1964 in Mobile, Alabama. She was a McDonald franchisee owning three stores in Mobile, Alabama. Harry discovered from her records at the McDonald's Corporate Offices that she had also had a real estate brokers license. Harry contacted her about the possibility of purchasing land for a fishing camp. She invited him down to Mobile to look at land, and that's how they first met. They immediately hit it off, and soon afterwards they married. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Aloyis remained utterly devoted to Harry until his death due to complications from diabetes September 21, 1992. She was sitting on the side of their bed at their Fowl River Mansion holding his hand when he took his last breath.
Three years later on October 6, 1995, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn married Grover H. Radney of Mobile, Alabama at Perdido Key in Escambia County Florida. Both she and Grover owned summer homes near each other across Mobile Bay. Aloyis on Ono Island, Grover across the canal from Ono Island on Perdido Key just inside the Florida line. Grover was divorced and his former wife resided in their West Mobile Mansion, and Gover in their Perdido Key summer house. Aloyis' marriage to Grover was short lived, ending in divorce in 1999. (Grover Radney died on March 29, 2003.) Aloyis changed her surname back to, Sonneborn, after the divorce, and at age 63 in 1999, Aloyis relisted the huge Fowl River Estate on the market. It sold in 2000. The home, along with two adjacent lots, each with a guest house, was bought by a local businessman for $1.5 million. That was far less that her $7 million asking price for the land and its 17,000 total square foot ultra-contemporary Japanese art deco mansion, 9,420 of which was enclosed living space, and 7,580 square feet of unique open-to-the-air living space.
Aloyis resigned herself to let it go for that low price because she had never received offers anywhere near her $7 Million asking price after having it on the market since the mid 1980's. When the Fowl River Mansion sold a year later in 2000, Aloyis purchased a 5,200 square foot Federal-style mansion in the sought-after Ridgefield subdivision in the Westwood area of Springhill in Mobile, Alabama, and moved there. She founded the Harry J and Aloyis L Sonneborn Charitable Trust to help educate the financially needy and the non-profit's first listed address was her new home in Mobile. She continued to throw lavish sit-down dinner parties there for her friends as she had always done at the Fowl River Mansion. The years rolled on, and by age 82, Aloyis realized the end of her life was near. She sold her house in Springhill and went to live permanently at her vacation house on Ono Island, Alabama, where she died in her bed there. Until just three days before her death she was still active and entertaining her friends. She died on her 85th birthday just as she said she would. She had stated the year before, that if she died tomorrow that life owed her nothing, for it has been a grand ride. (See the "Aloyis Lee Sonneborn" Find-A-Grave page.)
Historical Note 5:
Harry Sonneborn had three biological sisters. The four "Joseph" children were separated, and spread out among family members, when their parents died the auto crash accident in 1921. Mary Greenbaum Joseph Weil 18 Jul 1906 - 19 Jun 1986, was the eldest of the four children, (10 years Harry's senior). She was age 15 at the time of their parent's death and went to Florida. Flora Louise Joseph Nisenbaum 14 October 1914 - 24 May 1983, was age 7 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years older than Harry) She remained in Indiana. Carolyn Jane Joseph Kessler 15 Oct 1918 - 15 Jun 1987 was age 3 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years younger than Harry). She stayed in Indiana. Harry (age 5) went to New York City.
Harry Sonneborn's aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn made their home in Morningside Heights at 401 W 118th St., New York, NY 10027. Nestled between the Upper West Side and Harlem, Morningside Heights had, and still has, the feel of a college town with the metropolitan sensibilities of New York. The neighborhood is home to Columbia University and Barnard College. Young Harry enjoyed the sprawling Riverside Park as well as the picturesque Morningside Park. So, when his aunt and her husband brought 5-year-old Harry Morris Joseph to this beautiful spot in New York City, after Harry's parents died in a car crash, the boy couldn't have asked for a better place to grow up. They legally adopted him, and Harry Joseph Morris became, Harry Joseph Sonneborn.
Harry attended a private school, and after he graduated at 18, he went to work for his adopted father, Lewis Sonneborn. Lewis was a partner with his five brothers that owned; Sonneborn Brother's Clothing, 588 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10012. After working there for a year, Harry began attending Barnard College studying finance and economics.
Harry's adopting mother, Jeanette, died on May 1, 1938. She was buried alongside his adopting father Lewis's eldest brother Leo, and his wife, in Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York. Harry was about to turn 22 following month she died and took her death as his exit cue. With only two years of college finance and economics under his belt, he decided to leave New York after meeting and marrying his first wife June Edith Keppler. Harry and June moved to Gary Indiana to start their family due to a lower cost of living and a higher salary working for Arthur Winer Inc. The 41,000 square foot modern entirely air-conditioned building was located at 855 Taft Street in Gary and was the first plant of its kind to be planned and built expressly for the manufacturing of men's pants, or as they were called in the 40's, 50s and early 60s – slacks!
Harry worked in wholesale sales at Arthur Winer from 1939 until 1952 when Tastee Freez offered Harry a job at their corporate offices in the Chicago metro area where he remained until 1955. His aptitude with finance served him well and after a few years he became their vice president of finance. Then Harry Sonneborn met Ray Kroc in the early part of 1956, and that sealed Harry Sonneborn's place in history.
Harry Joseph Sonneborn, 77, the first President and CEO of McDonald's Corporation, died at his Mobile, Alabama home on Sept. 21, 1992, with his wife Aloyis Lee Sonneborn by his bedside holding his hand.
Sonneborn was vice president of Tastee Freez in the 1950s when he learned about McDonald's. Ray Kroc, a former salesman of milkshake mixers, had bought their hamburger franchise name in 1952 from Dick and Maurice McDonald, who had started the chain in San Bernardino, California in 1940, paying each of the brothers 1.5 million dollars.
Sonneborn, who arranged for the loan for Ray Kroc to finally buy out the McDonald brothers in the early 1950's, (in what would today be called a hostel corporate takeover) was called by Kroc ''The financial wizard of the operation." Sonneborn set up the franchise system that today makes McDonald's one of the largest holders of real estate in the world. He was president of the firm from 1959 to 1967 and became a multimillionaire as a result. Sonneborn, was quoted as saying, "We are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell fifteen-cent hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants can pay us our rent."
A former vice president of finances at Tastee-Freez, Sonneborn approached Ray Kroc with the concept of Kroc owning the land that McDonald outlets were to be built on and then leasing that land to the franchisee. This business model led to the explosive growth of McDonald's; the real estate deals were handled through a specially formed corporation named McDonald's Franchise Realty Corp. The "Sonneborn model" persists to this day within the corporation and might have been the most important financial decision in the company's history. McDonald's present-day real estate holdings represent $37.7Bn on its balance sheet, about 99 percent of the company's assets and about 35 percent of its global revenue.
Kroc appointed Sonneborn as McDonald's first president and chief executive officer in 1959, which he held until he resigned in 1967, due to falling out with Kroc. Ray Kroc insisted on continuing expansion, whereas Sonneborn held the view that the country was heading into a recession and should put a stop on constructing new stores. Kroc took the title of President and CEO after Sonneborn resigned, sold his sizable block of stock, then refused to ever again speak about McDonalds.
Sonneborn was one of the most respected collectors of Americana and historical documents in the world. At one time, he owned one of only two annotated copies of the U.S. Constitution as well as original copies of the constitutions of all the states. He also owned the original document from German President Paul von Hindenburg making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
''He was a very serious man with a dry sense of humor,'' his wife, Aloyis, said. ''He was a real love.''
Survivors, besides his second wife, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn, including two adult children by his first marriage to marriage to June Edith Kepler, a son, Dr. Robert Sonneborn; a daughter, Judith Sonneborn Bach, and four grandchildren. Graveside services were held in Mobile, Alabama at Pine Crest Cemetery, with Pine Crest Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Historical Note 1:
Harry J. Sonneborn is played by actor B.J Novac in the 2017 movie "The Founder" in which Michael Keaton plays the role of Ray Kroc. The movie pulls no punches concerning Ray Kroc being a hyperactive often ruthless ambitious man. The movie is the true story of how small-time salesman Ray Kroc met brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald when he was selling them six mixers for the small restaurant chain that they'd started on their own. Impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making and serving the food, he saw the potential to make a highly profitable franchise. Kroc manages to talk the brothers into letting him get involved and is eventually able to pull the company out from under them, despite opposition from all sides. He had help in doing that from Harry Sonneborn.
Despite "The Founder" motion picture theatrics, according to actual McDonalds Corporation historical records… In 1956, Ray Kroc met Harry J. Sonneborn, VP of finance for Tastee-Freez, who offered an idea to accelerate the growth and investment grade of Kroc's planned McDonald's operation: Own the real estate that future franchises would be built on. Kroc hired Sonneborn and his plan was executed through forming a separate company called, Franchise Realty Corporation, which was solely designed to hold McDonald's real estate. The new company signed leases, and took out mortgages for both lands and buildings, in turn then passing these costs on to the franchisee with a 20-40% markup, and a reduced initial deposit of $950. The "Sonneborn model" of real estate ownership within the franchise persists to this day, possibly being the most important financial decision in the company's history.
In 1959, Harry Sonneborn became the President and CEO of McDonald's. That same year, the company opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the total to 102 locations. By 1961 Kroc's conflict over the vision of the company with the founding brothers had grown to an unbearable extent, and he asked them how much money they wanted to leave their business to him entirely. The brothers asked for $2.7 million (about $21.6 million in today's dollars), which Kroc did not have. Harry Sonneborn was able to raise the money, and Kroc bought the founding brothers out. This purchase laid the groundwork to positioning the company for an initial public offering, (IPO) and furthering the aim at making McDonald's the number one fast-food chain in the country. The exact process of how the McDonald brother's company was sold is not well recorded; it is depicted as hostile takeover by Ray Kroc in the 2017 movie "The Founder," but that portrayal is disputed, and interviews of the time speak of a more voluntary transition. However, the brothers complained in later years that they were cheated, once the value of publicly traded stock went through the roof.
In 1965, McDonald's Corporation went public, and Harry Sonneborn was invited to ring the opening bell on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He insisted that his second wife, Aloyis, (that he married on October 23, 1964, in Mobile, Alabama) accompany him into the all-male domain of the stock exchange. The exchange relented and allowed her in. Aloyis Sonneborn is the only female other than Queen Elizabeth II of England to ever be allowed on the exchange's trading floor.
Kroc and Sonneborn had a falling-out over expansion of McDonalds when Sonneborn thought the country was about to go into a recession. Kroc pushed Sonneborn to continue rapid expansion, but by that time Sonneborn owned a large block of McDonald's stock and was afraid of losing his fortune. He resigned in 1967 and refused to talk about McDonalds for the rest of his life. Kroc took over the title of CEO and President after Sonneborn left. Sonneborn had sold his stock for three million fearing Kroc's push for continued expansion would cause the stock to plummet. The recession never happened, and Sonneborn selling his block of McDonald's stock was one of the few times that Harry Sonneborn was ever wrong about financial speculations. Had he retained his stock he would have easily become a billionaire by the 1980s, rather than being a multimillionaire, worth approximately $100-million-dollars. Below is why Sonneborn never became a billionaire...
Before the company went public, common shares of McDonald's stock were offered at $22.50 per share. After Sonneborn resigned and sold his stock in 1967 by the end of the next day's trading, the price had risen to $30. This in itself was good performance. But then the stock really took off. It was not long after Sonneborn sold his shares in fear that a recession was about to begin, that the stock splits began to occur. A block of 100 shares purchased for $2,250 in 1965 was worth, after 12 stock splits post 1967 (that increased the original 100 shares to 74,360 shares), the original $2,250 investment would have ended up being worth over $5.7 million. That is an enormous rarely heard of increase in value. Doing the same math Sonneborn's original block of 133 shares would have been worth $1.3 billion dollars ten years later in 1977 had he held onto it.
Historical Note 2:
Harry J. Sonneborn was born as, Harry Morris Joseph, to Jewish immigrants, Mark Harry Joseph and Minnie Greenbaum Joseph in Evansville, Indiana. After the car crash death of his parents in 1921 when Sonneborn was age 5, he was legally adopted by his aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn of New York City, and his name was legally changed to; Harry Joseph Sonneborn. They were Jews that belonged to the liberal Reform Jewish movement, known outside the United States as Progressive Judaism. Harry Sonneborn got his first job with Sonneborn Brother Clothiers in the Garment District of Manhattan (his adopting father was a full partner).
After he married, he moved to Gary, Indiana where he worked as a salesman for Arthur Winer Inc., (the nation's first wholesale producer of men's pants).
In 1952 he moved his family to Illinois to work in the corporate offices of Tastee Freez, where he worked his way up to vice president of finance.
There is speculation as to what actually transpired within Harry Sonneborn's family, due to Sonneborn and his three sisters being split up and sent to different members of their extended family. We do know that the Sonneborn's moved Harry to their home in New York City as is demonstrated by the 1930 United States Census below.
Historical Note 3:
Harry Sonneborn
United States Census, 1930
Name: Harry Sonneborn
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Manhattan (Districts 0251-0500), New York, New York, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 13
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1917
Birthplace: Indiana
Father's Birthplace: Germany
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Son
Sheet Letter: B
Sheet Number: 16
Louis Sonneborn
Household Role, Head, Age 54. Birthplace: Germany (About 1876)
Jeanette Sonneborn
Household Role, Wife, Age 43, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1887)
Harry Sonneborn.
Household Role, Son, Age 13, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1916)
Elizabeth Springman
Household Role, Maid, Age19, Birthplace: Germany (About 1911)
Historical Note 4:
Sonneborn's first marriage 12 December 1938 in Cook, Illinois to June Edith Kepler (Born 1916– Died 2005) produced a son, Robert, and a daughter, Judith. After that marriage to ended in divorce,
Harry Sonneborn married, Aloyis Joan Lee, 24 June 1964 in Mobile, Alabama. She was a McDonald franchisee owning three stores in Mobile, Alabama. Harry discovered from her records at the McDonald's Corporate Offices that she had also had a real estate brokers license. Harry contacted her about the possibility of purchasing land for a fishing camp. She invited him down to Mobile to look at land, and that's how they first met. They immediately hit it off, and soon afterwards they married. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Aloyis remained utterly devoted to Harry until his death due to complications from diabetes September 21, 1992. She was sitting on the side of their bed at their Fowl River Mansion holding his hand when he took his last breath.
Three years later on October 6, 1995, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn married Grover H. Radney of Mobile, Alabama at Perdido Key in Escambia County Florida. Both she and Grover owned summer homes near each other across Mobile Bay. Aloyis on Ono Island, Grover across the canal from Ono Island on Perdido Key just inside the Florida line. Grover was divorced and his former wife resided in their West Mobile Mansion, and Gover in their Perdido Key summer house. Aloyis' marriage to Grover was short lived, ending in divorce in 1999. (Grover Radney died on March 29, 2003.) Aloyis changed her surname back to, Sonneborn, after the divorce, and at age 63 in 1999, Aloyis relisted the huge Fowl River Estate on the market. It sold in 2000. The home, along with two adjacent lots, each with a guest house, was bought by a local businessman for $1.5 million. That was far less that her $7 million asking price for the land and its 17,000 total square foot ultra-contemporary Japanese art deco mansion, 9,420 of which was enclosed living space, and 7,580 square feet of unique open-to-the-air living space.
Aloyis resigned herself to let it go for that low price because she had never received offers anywhere near her $7 Million asking price after having it on the market since the mid 1980's. When the Fowl River Mansion sold a year later in 2000, Aloyis purchased a 5,200 square foot Federal-style mansion in the sought-after Ridgefield subdivision in the Westwood area of Springhill in Mobile, Alabama, and moved there. She founded the Harry J and Aloyis L Sonneborn Charitable Trust to help educate the financially needy and the non-profit's first listed address was her new home in Mobile. She continued to throw lavish sit-down dinner parties there for her friends as she had always done at the Fowl River Mansion. The years rolled on, and by age 82, Aloyis realized the end of her life was near. She sold her house in Springhill and went to live permanently at her vacation house on Ono Island, Alabama, where she died in her bed there. Until just three days before her death she was still active and entertaining her friends. She died on her 85th birthday just as she said she would. She had stated the year before, that if she died tomorrow that life owed her nothing, for it has been a grand ride. (See the "Aloyis Lee Sonneborn" Find-A-Grave page.)
Historical Note 5:
Harry Sonneborn had three biological sisters. The four "Joseph" children were separated, and spread out among family members, when their parents died the auto crash accident in 1921. Mary Greenbaum Joseph Weil 18 Jul 1906 - 19 Jun 1986, was the eldest of the four children, (10 years Harry's senior). She was age 15 at the time of their parent's death and went to Florida. Flora Louise Joseph Nisenbaum 14 October 1914 - 24 May 1983, was age 7 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years older than Harry) She remained in Indiana. Carolyn Jane Joseph Kessler 15 Oct 1918 - 15 Jun 1987 was age 3 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years younger than Harry). She stayed in Indiana. Harry (age 5) went to New York City.
Harry Sonneborn's aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn made their home in Morningside Heights at 401 W 118th St., New York, NY 10027. Nestled between the Upper West Side and Harlem, Morningside Heights had, and still has, the feel of a college town with the metropolitan sensibilities of New York. The neighborhood is home to Columbia University and Barnard College. Young Harry enjoyed the sprawling Riverside Park as well as the picturesque Morningside Park. So, when his aunt and her husband brought 5-year-old Harry Morris Joseph to this beautiful spot in New York City, after Harry's parents died in a car crash, the boy couldn't have asked for a better place to grow up. They legally adopted him, and Harry Joseph Morris became, Harry Joseph Sonneborn.
Harry attended a private school, and after he graduated at 18, he went to work for his adopted father, Lewis Sonneborn. Lewis was a partner with his five brothers that owned; Sonneborn Brother's Clothing, 588 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10012. After working there for a year, Harry began attending Barnard College studying finance and economics.
Harry's adopting mother, Jeanette, died on May 1, 1938. She was buried alongside his adopting father Lewis's eldest brother Leo, and his wife, in Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York. Harry was about to turn 22 following month she died and took her death as his exit cue. With only two years of college finance and economics under his belt, he decided to leave New York after meeting and marrying his first wife June Edith Keppler. Harry and June moved to Gary Indiana to start their family due to a lower cost of living and a higher salary working for Arthur Winer Inc. The 41,000 square foot modern entirely air-conditioned building was located at 855 Taft Street in Gary and was the first plant of its kind to be planned and built expressly for the manufacturing of men's pants, or as they were called in the 40's, 50s and early 60s – slacks!
Harry worked in wholesale sales at Arthur Winer from 1939 until 1952 when Tastee Freez offered Harry a job at their corporate offices in the Chicago metro area where he remained until 1955. His aptitude with finance served him well and after a few years he became their vice president of finance. Then Harry Sonneborn met Ray Kroc in the early part of 1956, and that sealed Harry Sonneborn's place in history.
Sonneborn was vice president of Tastee Freez in the 1950s when he learned about McDonald's. Ray Kroc, a former salesman of milkshake mixers, had bought their hamburger franchise name in 1952 from Dick and Maurice McDonald, who had started the chain in San Bernardino, California in 1940, paying each of the brothers 1.5 million dollars.
Sonneborn, who arranged for the loan for Ray Kroc to finally buy out the McDonald brothers in the early 1950's, (in what would today be called a hostel corporate takeover) was called by Kroc ''The financial wizard of the operation." Sonneborn set up the franchise system that today makes McDonald's one of the largest holders of real estate in the world. He was president of the firm from 1959 to 1967 and became a multimillionaire as a result. Sonneborn, was quoted as saying, "We are not technically in the food business. We are in the real estate business. The only reason we sell fifteen-cent hamburgers is because they are the greatest producer of revenue, from which our tenants can pay us our rent."
A former vice president of finances at Tastee-Freez, Sonneborn approached Ray Kroc with the concept of Kroc owning the land that McDonald outlets were to be built on and then leasing that land to the franchisee. This business model led to the explosive growth of McDonald's; the real estate deals were handled through a specially formed corporation named McDonald's Franchise Realty Corp. The "Sonneborn model" persists to this day within the corporation and might have been the most important financial decision in the company's history. McDonald's present-day real estate holdings represent $37.7Bn on its balance sheet, about 99 percent of the company's assets and about 35 percent of its global revenue.
Kroc appointed Sonneborn as McDonald's first president and chief executive officer in 1959, which he held until he resigned in 1967, due to falling out with Kroc. Ray Kroc insisted on continuing expansion, whereas Sonneborn held the view that the country was heading into a recession and should put a stop on constructing new stores. Kroc took the title of President and CEO after Sonneborn resigned, sold his sizable block of stock, then refused to ever again speak about McDonalds.
Sonneborn was one of the most respected collectors of Americana and historical documents in the world. At one time, he owned one of only two annotated copies of the U.S. Constitution as well as original copies of the constitutions of all the states. He also owned the original document from German President Paul von Hindenburg making Adolf Hitler dictator of Germany.
''He was a very serious man with a dry sense of humor,'' his wife, Aloyis, said. ''He was a real love.''
Survivors, besides his second wife, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn, including two adult children by his first marriage to marriage to June Edith Kepler, a son, Dr. Robert Sonneborn; a daughter, Judith Sonneborn Bach, and four grandchildren. Graveside services were held in Mobile, Alabama at Pine Crest Cemetery, with Pine Crest Funeral Home in charge of the arrangements.
Historical Note 1:
Harry J. Sonneborn is played by actor B.J Novac in the 2017 movie "The Founder" in which Michael Keaton plays the role of Ray Kroc. The movie pulls no punches concerning Ray Kroc being a hyperactive often ruthless ambitious man. The movie is the true story of how small-time salesman Ray Kroc met brothers Dick McDonald and Mac McDonald when he was selling them six mixers for the small restaurant chain that they'd started on their own. Impressed by the brothers' speedy system of making and serving the food, he saw the potential to make a highly profitable franchise. Kroc manages to talk the brothers into letting him get involved and is eventually able to pull the company out from under them, despite opposition from all sides. He had help in doing that from Harry Sonneborn.
Despite "The Founder" motion picture theatrics, according to actual McDonalds Corporation historical records… In 1956, Ray Kroc met Harry J. Sonneborn, VP of finance for Tastee-Freez, who offered an idea to accelerate the growth and investment grade of Kroc's planned McDonald's operation: Own the real estate that future franchises would be built on. Kroc hired Sonneborn and his plan was executed through forming a separate company called, Franchise Realty Corporation, which was solely designed to hold McDonald's real estate. The new company signed leases, and took out mortgages for both lands and buildings, in turn then passing these costs on to the franchisee with a 20-40% markup, and a reduced initial deposit of $950. The "Sonneborn model" of real estate ownership within the franchise persists to this day, possibly being the most important financial decision in the company's history.
In 1959, Harry Sonneborn became the President and CEO of McDonald's. That same year, the company opened 68 new restaurants, bringing the total to 102 locations. By 1961 Kroc's conflict over the vision of the company with the founding brothers had grown to an unbearable extent, and he asked them how much money they wanted to leave their business to him entirely. The brothers asked for $2.7 million (about $21.6 million in today's dollars), which Kroc did not have. Harry Sonneborn was able to raise the money, and Kroc bought the founding brothers out. This purchase laid the groundwork to positioning the company for an initial public offering, (IPO) and furthering the aim at making McDonald's the number one fast-food chain in the country. The exact process of how the McDonald brother's company was sold is not well recorded; it is depicted as hostile takeover by Ray Kroc in the 2017 movie "The Founder," but that portrayal is disputed, and interviews of the time speak of a more voluntary transition. However, the brothers complained in later years that they were cheated, once the value of publicly traded stock went through the roof.
In 1965, McDonald's Corporation went public, and Harry Sonneborn was invited to ring the opening bell on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange. He insisted that his second wife, Aloyis, (that he married on October 23, 1964, in Mobile, Alabama) accompany him into the all-male domain of the stock exchange. The exchange relented and allowed her in. Aloyis Sonneborn is the only female other than Queen Elizabeth II of England to ever be allowed on the exchange's trading floor.
Kroc and Sonneborn had a falling-out over expansion of McDonalds when Sonneborn thought the country was about to go into a recession. Kroc pushed Sonneborn to continue rapid expansion, but by that time Sonneborn owned a large block of McDonald's stock and was afraid of losing his fortune. He resigned in 1967 and refused to talk about McDonalds for the rest of his life. Kroc took over the title of CEO and President after Sonneborn left. Sonneborn had sold his stock for three million fearing Kroc's push for continued expansion would cause the stock to plummet. The recession never happened, and Sonneborn selling his block of McDonald's stock was one of the few times that Harry Sonneborn was ever wrong about financial speculations. Had he retained his stock he would have easily become a billionaire by the 1980s, rather than being a multimillionaire, worth approximately $100-million-dollars. Below is why Sonneborn never became a billionaire...
Before the company went public, common shares of McDonald's stock were offered at $22.50 per share. After Sonneborn resigned and sold his stock in 1967 by the end of the next day's trading, the price had risen to $30. This in itself was good performance. But then the stock really took off. It was not long after Sonneborn sold his shares in fear that a recession was about to begin, that the stock splits began to occur. A block of 100 shares purchased for $2,250 in 1965 was worth, after 12 stock splits post 1967 (that increased the original 100 shares to 74,360 shares), the original $2,250 investment would have ended up being worth over $5.7 million. That is an enormous rarely heard of increase in value. Doing the same math Sonneborn's original block of 133 shares would have been worth $1.3 billion dollars ten years later in 1977 had he held onto it.
Historical Note 2:
Harry J. Sonneborn was born as, Harry Morris Joseph, to Jewish immigrants, Mark Harry Joseph and Minnie Greenbaum Joseph in Evansville, Indiana. After the car crash death of his parents in 1921 when Sonneborn was age 5, he was legally adopted by his aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn of New York City, and his name was legally changed to; Harry Joseph Sonneborn. They were Jews that belonged to the liberal Reform Jewish movement, known outside the United States as Progressive Judaism. Harry Sonneborn got his first job with Sonneborn Brother Clothiers in the Garment District of Manhattan (his adopting father was a full partner).
After he married, he moved to Gary, Indiana where he worked as a salesman for Arthur Winer Inc., (the nation's first wholesale producer of men's pants).
In 1952 he moved his family to Illinois to work in the corporate offices of Tastee Freez, where he worked his way up to vice president of finance.
There is speculation as to what actually transpired within Harry Sonneborn's family, due to Sonneborn and his three sisters being split up and sent to different members of their extended family. We do know that the Sonneborn's moved Harry to their home in New York City as is demonstrated by the 1930 United States Census below.
Historical Note 3:
Harry Sonneborn
United States Census, 1930
Name: Harry Sonneborn
Event Type: Census
Event Date: 1930
Event Place: Manhattan (Districts 0251-0500), New York, New York, United States
Gender: Male
Age: 13
Marital Status: Single
Race: White
Race (Original): White
Birth Year (Estimated): 1917
Birthplace: Indiana
Father's Birthplace: Germany
Mother's Birthplace: Indiana
Relationship to Head of Household: Son
Relationship to Head of Household (Original): Son
Sheet Letter: B
Sheet Number: 16
Louis Sonneborn
Household Role, Head, Age 54. Birthplace: Germany (About 1876)
Jeanette Sonneborn
Household Role, Wife, Age 43, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1887)
Harry Sonneborn.
Household Role, Son, Age 13, Birthplace: Indiana (About 1916)
Elizabeth Springman
Household Role, Maid, Age19, Birthplace: Germany (About 1911)
Historical Note 4:
Sonneborn's first marriage 12 December 1938 in Cook, Illinois to June Edith Kepler (Born 1916– Died 2005) produced a son, Robert, and a daughter, Judith. After that marriage to ended in divorce,
Harry Sonneborn married, Aloyis Joan Lee, 24 June 1964 in Mobile, Alabama. She was a McDonald franchisee owning three stores in Mobile, Alabama. Harry discovered from her records at the McDonald's Corporate Offices that she had also had a real estate brokers license. Harry contacted her about the possibility of purchasing land for a fishing camp. She invited him down to Mobile to look at land, and that's how they first met. They immediately hit it off, and soon afterwards they married. Born and raised in Mobile, Alabama, Aloyis remained utterly devoted to Harry until his death due to complications from diabetes September 21, 1992. She was sitting on the side of their bed at their Fowl River Mansion holding his hand when he took his last breath.
Three years later on October 6, 1995, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn married Grover H. Radney of Mobile, Alabama at Perdido Key in Escambia County Florida. Both she and Grover owned summer homes near each other across Mobile Bay. Aloyis on Ono Island, Grover across the canal from Ono Island on Perdido Key just inside the Florida line. Grover was divorced and his former wife resided in their West Mobile Mansion, and Gover in their Perdido Key summer house. Aloyis' marriage to Grover was short lived, ending in divorce in 1999. (Grover Radney died on March 29, 2003.) Aloyis changed her surname back to, Sonneborn, after the divorce, and at age 63 in 1999, Aloyis relisted the huge Fowl River Estate on the market. It sold in 2000. The home, along with two adjacent lots, each with a guest house, was bought by a local businessman for $1.5 million. That was far less that her $7 million asking price for the land and its 17,000 total square foot ultra-contemporary Japanese art deco mansion, 9,420 of which was enclosed living space, and 7,580 square feet of unique open-to-the-air living space.
Aloyis resigned herself to let it go for that low price because she had never received offers anywhere near her $7 Million asking price after having it on the market since the mid 1980's. When the Fowl River Mansion sold a year later in 2000, Aloyis purchased a 5,200 square foot Federal-style mansion in the sought-after Ridgefield subdivision in the Westwood area of Springhill in Mobile, Alabama, and moved there. She founded the Harry J and Aloyis L Sonneborn Charitable Trust to help educate the financially needy and the non-profit's first listed address was her new home in Mobile. She continued to throw lavish sit-down dinner parties there for her friends as she had always done at the Fowl River Mansion. The years rolled on, and by age 82, Aloyis realized the end of her life was near. She sold her house in Springhill and went to live permanently at her vacation house on Ono Island, Alabama, where she died in her bed there. Until just three days before her death she was still active and entertaining her friends. She died on her 85th birthday just as she said she would. She had stated the year before, that if she died tomorrow that life owed her nothing, for it has been a grand ride. (See the "Aloyis Lee Sonneborn" Find-A-Grave page.)
Historical Note 5:
Harry Sonneborn had three biological sisters. The four "Joseph" children were separated, and spread out among family members, when their parents died the auto crash accident in 1921. Mary Greenbaum Joseph Weil 18 Jul 1906 - 19 Jun 1986, was the eldest of the four children, (10 years Harry's senior). She was age 15 at the time of their parent's death and went to Florida. Flora Louise Joseph Nisenbaum 14 October 1914 - 24 May 1983, was age 7 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years older than Harry) She remained in Indiana. Carolyn Jane Joseph Kessler 15 Oct 1918 - 15 Jun 1987 was age 3 at the time of their parent's death, (2 years younger than Harry). She stayed in Indiana. Harry (age 5) went to New York City.
Harry Sonneborn's aunt, Jeanette Minnie Joseph Sonneborn, and her, husband Louis Joseph Sonneborn made their home in Morningside Heights at 401 W 118th St., New York, NY 10027. Nestled between the Upper West Side and Harlem, Morningside Heights had, and still has, the feel of a college town with the metropolitan sensibilities of New York. The neighborhood is home to Columbia University and Barnard College. Young Harry enjoyed the sprawling Riverside Park as well as the picturesque Morningside Park. So, when his aunt and her husband brought 5-year-old Harry Morris Joseph to this beautiful spot in New York City, after Harry's parents died in a car crash, the boy couldn't have asked for a better place to grow up. They legally adopted him, and Harry Joseph Morris became, Harry Joseph Sonneborn.
Harry attended a private school, and after he graduated at 18, he went to work for his adopted father, Lewis Sonneborn. Lewis was a partner with his five brothers that owned; Sonneborn Brother's Clothing, 588 Broadway, 5th Floor, New York, NY 10012. After working there for a year, Harry began attending Barnard College studying finance and economics.
Harry's adopting mother, Jeanette, died on May 1, 1938. She was buried alongside his adopting father Lewis's eldest brother Leo, and his wife, in Westchester Hills Cemetery, Hastings-on-Hudson, Westchester County, New York. Harry was about to turn 22 following month she died and took her death as his exit cue. With only two years of college finance and economics under his belt, he decided to leave New York after meeting and marrying his first wife June Edith Keppler. Harry and June moved to Gary Indiana to start their family due to a lower cost of living and a higher salary working for Arthur Winer Inc. The 41,000 square foot modern entirely air-conditioned building was located at 855 Taft Street in Gary and was the first plant of its kind to be planned and built expressly for the manufacturing of men's pants, or as they were called in the 40's, 50s and early 60s – slacks!
Harry worked in wholesale sales at Arthur Winer from 1939 until 1952 when Tastee Freez offered Harry a job at their corporate offices in the Chicago metro area where he remained until 1955. His aptitude with finance served him well and after a few years he became their vice president of finance. Then Harry Sonneborn met Ray Kroc in the early part of 1956, and that sealed Harry Sonneborn's place in history.
Inscription
The headstone is inscribed on the lower left section with "KEISTER" in the higher center section with "SONNEBORN", and on the lower right section with "LEE" The entire headstone is massive. About ten feet wide and four feet high. The "Keister" and "Lee" family members buried here can be seen by viewing, Aloyis Lee Sonneborn, who was born as, Aloyis June Lee.
Gravesite Details
Harry and Aloyis Sonneborn are the only Sonneborn's here. The Keister family members on the left, and the Lee family members on the right, are Aloyis Sonneborn's family members. Her mother (Mary) was married twice, first to "Lee," then to, "Keister"
