Wendy Thomas | |
---|---|
Born | Melinda Lou Thomas September 14, 1961 Columbus, Ohio, U.S. |
Alma mater | University of Florida [1] |
Employer | The Wendy's Company |
Known for | Namesake of Wendy's hamburger chain |
Spouse | Paul Morse |
Parent(s) | Dave Thomas Lorraine Thomas |
Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas-Morse (born September 14, 1961) is the daughter of American businessman Dave Thomas, the founder of the fast food brand Wendy's. She is the namesake and mascot of the brand. She uses the name Wendy Thomas in her role as a spokesperson for Wendy's.
Thomas was born in Columbus, Ohio, grew up in Upper Arlington, [2] and is the fourth child of Dave and Lorraine Thomas.
As a child, she was unable to pronounce her L's and R's, struggling with her own name Melinda, and so became known by her nickname Wendy (with the pen-pin merger). The eight-year-old would eventually become the namesake of her father's restaurant Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers, or just "Wendy's" for short. [3] In addition to being the namesake, her likeness was used as the Wendy's logo in the form of a young freckle-faced girl in red braids. [4] [5] Thomas graduated from the University of Florida in 1983 with a bachelor's degree in consumer behaviorism. [6]
Thomas owned several Wendy's restaurants near Dallas, Texas until 1999. [7] After the death of her father Dave Thomas in 2002, she and her siblings bought restaurants in her native Columbus area. As of September 2010 [update] , Thomas herself owned or co-owned more than 30 Wendy's stores. [8] In November 2010, she began appearing in Wendy’s ads on camera for the first time. [9] [10] (Her voice was featured in a 1989 ad giving her father advice from off-camera.) [3] The 2010 ads aired first in Las Vegas, Nevada; Mobile, Alabama; and Virginia Beach, Virginia; test markets before being rolled out nationally. [11]
Beginning in April 2012 she starred in a series of ads for Wendy's called That Wendy's Way. [12] [13] She also appeared in the 'Dave's Hot 'N Juicy Cheeseburger' commercial produced by Publicis Groupe's Kaplan Thaler Group. [11] [14]
Rex David Thomas was an American businessman, philanthropist, and fast-food tycoon. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. In this role, Thomas appeared in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history.
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Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. Its headquarters moved to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of December 31, 2018, Wendy's was the world's third-largest hamburger fast-food chain with 6,711 locations, following McDonald’s and Burger King. On September 29, 2008, the company merged with Triarc Companies Inc., the publicly traded parent company of Arby's; Wendy's headquarters remained in Dublin. Triarc then became known as Wendy's/Arby's Group, and later as the Wendy's Company following the sale of Arby's to Roark Capital Group.
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Jessica Edith Louise Foster, is a Canadian woman who disappeared in the Las Vegas Valley in Nevada, United States, in 2006. Her parents are Glendene Grant and Dwight Foster. Jessie Foster had spent some time living in Calgary, Alberta. In 2005, Foster and a friend of hers visited Florida together, and then stopped by Las Vegas on the way back in May where Foster decided to stay. Before disappearing the following year, Foster became involved in prostitution, was arrested once for solicitation, and was the victim of battery on several occasions.
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Anna Dalia Ayala is an American fraudstress and convicted felon. She is most known for bringing a fraudulent tort claim against a Wendy's restaurant in San Jose, California in 2005. Ayala’s claims cost the chain more than US$30 million in lost revenue. This led to a felony charge of attempted grand larceny against her, to which Ayala pleaded guilty in September 2005. She was sentenced to nine years in prison on January 18, 2006 and served four years. In 2013, she received another prison sentence for an unrelated incident regarding filing a false police report and felony firearm possession.