Claim: Jay Hottinger Says Wendy’s founder "Dave Thomas left the state literally on his deathbed to avoid the estate tax.
Verdict: REFUTES

Retrieved passages:
title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: Dave Thomas (businessman) Rex David Thomas (July 2, 1932 – January 8, 2002) was an American businessman and philanthropist. Thomas was the founder and chief executive officer of Wendy's, a fast-food restaurant chain specializing in hamburgers. He is also known for appearing in more than 800 commercial advertisements for the chain from 1989 to 2002, more than any other company founder in television history. Thomas was born on July 2, 1932 in Atlantic City, New Jersey to a young unmarried woman he never knew. He was adopted at six weeks by Rex and Auleva Thomas, and as an adult became

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: Honorary, S.J., on November 25, 1995, in Atlanta, Georgia, and unanimously elected to the Scottish Rite's highest honor, the Grand Cross, by The Supreme Council, 33°, in Executive Session on October 3, 1997, in Washington, D.C. Thomas had been battling a carcinoid neuroendocrine tumor for ten years, before it metastasized to his liver. He died on January 8, 2002 at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida at the age of 69. Thomas was buried in Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio. At the time of his death, there were more than 6,000 Wendy's restaurants operating in North America. Dave Thomas (businessman)

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: Wendy's about a year later. After serving as a regional director for Kentucky Fried Chicken, Thomas became part of the investor group which founded Arthur Treacher's. His involvement with the new restaurant lasted less than a year before he went on to found Wendy's. Thomas opened his first Wendy's in Columbus, Ohio, November 15, 1969. (This original restaurant remained operational until March 2, 2007, when it was closed due to lagging sales.) Thomas named the restaurant after his eight-year-old daughter Melinda Lou, whose nickname was "Wendy", stemming from the child's inability to say her own name at a young age.

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: In addition to Melinda they had three more daughters, Pam, Lori and Molly, and a son, Kenny. Though Kenny died in 2013, Dave's daughters still continue to own and run multiple Wendy's locations. Thomas founded the chain Sisters Chicken and Biscuits in 1978, named in reference to his other 3 daughters. Thomas, realizing that his success as a high school dropout might convince other teenagers to quit school (something he later claimed was a mistake), became a student at Coconut Creek High School. He earned a GED in 1993. Thomas was inducted into the Junior Achievement U.S. Business Hall of

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: a well-known advocate for adoption, founding the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption. After his adoptive mother's death when he was 5, his father moved around the country seeking work. Thomas spent some of his early childhood near Kalamazoo, Michigan with his grandmother, Minnie Sinclair, whom he credited with teaching him the importance of service and treating others well and with respect, lessons that helped him in his future business life. At 12, Thomas had his first job at Regas Restaurant, a fine dining restaurant in downtown Knoxville, Tennessee, then lost it in a dispute with his boss; decades later, Regas

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: According to "Bio TV", Dave claims himself that people nicknamed his daughter "Wenda. Not Wendy, but Wenda. 'I'm going to call it Wendy's Old Fashioned Hamburgers'." In 1982, Thomas resigned from his day-to-day operations at Wendy's. However, by 1985, several company business decisions, including an awkward new breakfast menu and loss in brand awareness due to fizzled marketing efforts, caused the company's new president to urge Thomas back into a more active role with Wendy's. Thomas began to visit franchises and espouse his hardworking, so-called "mop-bucket attitude." In 1989, he took on a significant role as the TV spokesperson in

title: Wendy's
text: spaghetti sauce, saying "I found it, I really found it", a phrase alluding to the beef in the listener's mind. Peller was soon after replaced by Wendy's founder Dave Thomas himself. Soft-spoken and bashful, the "Dave" ads generally focused on Thomas praising his products and offering a commitment to quality service, although there would occasionally be "wackier" ads as well. Thomas ultimately appeared in more than 800 commercials, more than any other company founder in television history. After Dave Thomas' death in 2002, Wendy's struggled to find a new advertising campaign. After a round of conventional ads describing the food

title: Ron Joyce
text: coffee shops and Wendy's fast food restaurants in Prince Edward Island wanted to combine both franchises under one roof in a new development in Montague. Murphy asked Joyce and Wendy's founder, Dave Thomas (1932–2002), to be present for the opening. Joyce eventually sold his Wendy's stock and retired from management, but even in retirement continues to be active in his holding company, Jetport Inc, which has significant real estate, aviation, and commercial interests. In 2000, Joyce opened Fox Harb'r Golf Resort & Spa, a five star, four diamond resort/gated community. An airport was built as part of the new resort,

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: a series of commercials for the brand. Thomas was not a natural actor, and initially, his performances were criticized as stiff and ineffective by advertising critics. By 1990, after efforts by Wendy's agency, Backer Spielvolgel Bates, to get humor into the campaign, a decision was made to portray Thomas in a more self-deprecating and folksy manner, which proved much more popular with test audiences. Consumer brand awareness of Wendy's eventually regained levels it had not achieved since octogenarian Clara Peller's wildly popular "Where's the beef?" campaign of 1984. With his natural self-effacing style and his relaxed manner, Thomas quickly became

title: Dan Duncan
text: of the estate tax law for the year 2010, Duncan became the first American billionaire to pay no estate tax since its enactment. Dan Duncan Dan L. Duncan (January 2, 1933 – March 28, 2010) was an American born in Center, Texas. He was the co-founder, chairman and majority shareholder of Enterprise Products. Duncan was born in 1933 in rural Shelby County, Texas. His father was a farmer. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was seven and his brother died of blood poisoning in the same year. He lived with his grandmother until he graduated from Shelbyville High School.

title: Wendy Thomas
text: Wendy Thomas Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas-Morse (born September 14, 1961) is the daughter and fourth child of American businessman Dave Thomas, the founder of the fast food brand Wendy's. Morse is best known for being 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, the fourth child of Dave Thomas. As a child Morse 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). Then 8-year

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: Restaurant installed a large autographed poster-photo of Thomas just inside their entrance until the business closed down December 31, 2010. He vowed never to lose another job. Moving with his father, by 15 he was working in Fort Wayne, Indiana at the Hobby House Restaurant owned by the Clauss family. When his father prepared to move again, Thomas decided to stay in Fort Wayne, dropping out of high school to work full-time at the restaurant. Thomas, who considered ending his schooling the greatest mistake of his life, did not graduate from high school until 1993, when he obtained a GED.

title: Wendy Thomas
text: Groupe's Kaplan Thaler Group. Wendy Thomas Melinda Lou "Wendy" Thomas-Morse (born September 14, 1961) is the daughter and fourth child of American businessman Dave Thomas, the founder of the fast food brand Wendy's. Morse is best known for being 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, the fourth child of Dave Thomas. As a child Morse 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

title: Dave Thomas (businessman)
text: Thomas returned to Fort Wayne and the Hobby House. In the mid-1950s, Kentucky Fried Chicken founder Col. Harland Sanders came to Fort Wayne to find restaurateurs with established businesses in order to try to sell KFC franchises to them. At first, Thomas, who was the head cook at a restaurant, and the Clauss's declined Sanders' offer, but Sanders persisted and the Clauss family franchised their restaurant with KFC and later also owned many other KFC franchises in the Midwest. During this time, Thomas worked with Sanders on many projects to make KFC more profitable and to give it brand recognition.

title: History of KFC
text: red bucket sign, was an early advocate of the take-out concept that Harman had pioneered, and introduced a bookkeeping form that Sanders rolled out across the entire KFC chain. Thomas sold his shares in 1968 for US$1 million (around US$7 million in 2013), and became regional manager for all KFC restaurants east of the Mississippi before founding Wendy's in 1969. In 1956, Sanders moved the company headquarters from Corbin to Shelbyville, Kentucky, which offered superior transport links through which he could distribute his spices, pressure cookers, take-out cartons and advertising material to franchisees. KFC popularized chicken in the fast food

title: Carroll A. Campbell Jr.
text: Wendy's restaurants in South Carolina. In October 2001, aged 61, Campbell was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. The revelation forced him to abandon plans to run for governor again in 2002. He was admitted to a long-term residential treatment facility for Alzheimer's patients in August 2005. He died of a heart attack on December 7, 2005 at Lexington Medical Center in West Columbia. After lying in state at the State House, he was eulogized at memorial services at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Columbia and at All Saints Episcopal Church in Pawleys Island. He was buried in the church cemetery of All

title: Lera Millard Thomas
text: the Houston Ship Channel. Because he died after filing for office in 1966, Albert Thomas's name remained on the Democratic Primary ballot for the 8th District and his widow determined that she would not seek a full term for 1967. State Representative Bob Eckhardt won the primary for a full term. After serving the remainder of her husband's term, Thomas left Congress on January 3, 1967. After her term in Congress, Mrs. Thomas served as special liaison for the "Houston Chronicle" to members of the armed services in Vietnam. When she returned from Vietnam, Thomas founded Millard's Crossing Historic Village

title: Wendy's
text: Wendy's Wendy's is an American international fast food restaurant chain founded by Dave Thomas on November 15, 1969, in Columbus, Ohio. The company moved its headquarters to Dublin, Ohio, on January 29, 2006. As of 2016, Wendy's was the world's third largest hamburger fast food chain with 6,500+ locations, following Burger King and McDonald's. On April 24, 2008, the company announced a merger with Triarc Companies Inc., a publicly traded company and the parent company of Arby's. Despite the new ownership, Wendy's headquarters remained in Dublin. Previously, Wendy's had rejected more than two buyout offers from Triarc. Following the merger,

title: Thomas Perkins (businessman)
text: to a video documenting encounters with Humpback whales at depth in Tonga. Perkins died June 7, 2016 after a prolonged illness at his home in Marin County, California, aged 84. Thomas Perkins (businessman) "For the Florida politician see Mayors of Tallahassee, Florida" Thomas James Perkins (January 7, 1932 – June 7, 2016) was an American businessman, capitalist and was one of the founders of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers. Perkins received a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in 1953. He earned an MBA from Harvard University in 1957. While

title: Hot 'n Now
text: and others were combined with gas stations. Hot 'n Now was founded in Kalamazoo, Michigan in 1984 by William Van Domelen. Van Domelen had opened the first Michigan Wendy’s restaurants and a franchisee of Burger Chef in Southwest Michigan. By 1990, the chain operated more than 100 stores in 15 different states. That same year, it was acquired by PepsiCo, which placed operations under its Taco Bell unit. Van Domelen resigned from the company soon after the sale. The company began making changes to the chain's concept that frustrated the franchisees starting in 1992 with the menu. Hot 'n Now