I'd like to than ya'll heauh in Hoosierland for being such an important part of the history of the soft drink I grew up with in Kentucky:
When Leo King Jr. began working for the Royal Crown Beverage Co. of Evansville, there were nine other soft-drink bottlers in the area.
The Royal Crown plant is the last of them left. King, who became the sole owner of the company in the mid 1970s, led it through many of those changes. For that work, Beverage World magazine is inducting him into its Soft Drink Hall of Fame.
King, now 76, came to Royal Crown 1958. According to his estimates, the United States then contained about 9,000 bottling plants. They had the job of packaging the soft drinks sold at local restaurants and grocery stores.
Such boldness and balance, and the bouquet! An RC, as we called it, is the only soft drink allowed to accompany a Moon Pie -- I think it might be a law in several states. And it's much better than Pepsi or Coke for the Appalachian snack of choice -- a bag of peanuts swimming in a bottle of pop. Don't knock it till you try it.
