Esther Snyder, who with her late husband Harry co-founded In-N-Out Burger in Baldwin Park in 1948 and popularized the drive-through window for the fast-food industry, has died. She was 86.
Snyder, who had succeeded her husband and two sons as head of the family business, died Friday, according to an announcement from the company. Neither the cause nor the place of death was announced.
"She was an inspiration for all the associates at In-N-Out and for all the people in the community whose lives she touched over the years," Lynsi Martinez, her granddaughter and sole heir, said in a statement.
In-N-Out's vice president of operations, Mark Taylor -- who will succeed Snyder as the firm's president -- said in a statement that "Mrs. Snyder showed us all how to be a great leader and businessperson.
"She expected hard work from associates, and in return she believed in rewarding them well and treating them as members of one family."
In-N-Out Burger opened in the same era as McDonald's, Carl's Jr. and Jack in the Box -- all Southern California burger stands that grew into regional or national chains. But unlike their competitors, the Snyders favored a slow-growth approach and loyalty to and from employees, and they were sticklers for customer satisfaction and personal control over their closely held family business.
As McDonald's and other chains opened thousands of outlets around the world, In-N-Out stayed relatively small and even now numbers just 202 stores in three states: California, Nevada and Arizona. Although the company declined to reveal sales figures or much else about its operations or the lives of its founders, Restaurants & Institutions magazine estimated its 2002 sales at $260 million.
A native of Sorrento, Ill., Snyder was born Esther Lavelle Johnson, one of seven girls in a family of eight children. She attended Greenville College in Illinois, and during World War II she served in the WAVES, the women's branch of the Navy, where her duties included surgical nursing. She left the military with the rank of pharmacist first class.
After the war, she attended Seattle Pacific University, graduating with a degree in zoology. In 1947, while working as the day manager for the restaurant at Seattle's Ft. Lawton, she met Harry Snyder, a caterer and World War II veteran who sold baked goods to the restaurant.
