http://www.newson6.com/global/story.asp?s=11395867
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) - Troy N. Smith, the founder of a drive-in chain that became Sonic restaurants, has died in Oklahoma City. He was 87.
A spokeswoman for the Oklahoma City-based restaurant chain says Smith died Monday at an Oklahoma City hospital after a recent decline in health
Smith started the Top Hat root beer stand in Shawnee in 1953 and later converted it into a drive-in restaurant where customers used an intercom speaker system to place orders from their cars.
He eventually changed the name to Sonic Drive-Ins. There currently are nearly 3,600 restaurants in 42 states.
RIP in the big Sonic Blast in the sky.
This guy did the bankruptcy/franchise reinvention better than anybody.....wanted to be Ray Kroc II....his pall bearers will be on roller skates and pray tell there will be a shake and wake.
He'd a lived to be 100 had he stayed away from his own fast food. ;D