Dan Evins

Cracker Barrel says Evins opened his first restaurant in Lebanon, Tenn., in 1969. The restaurant catered to highway travelers and focused on offering the Southern hospitality, country-style cooking and the gift shop that came to define the chain. He fashioned the restaurant after the country stores of his youth in rural Tennessee. Evins helped build the chain into a national brand as CEO from 1969 to 2001 and chairman until he retired in 2004.