By By Lydia Grimes
features reporter
William Kenney came into Brewton with his chef’s hat on and barbecue sauce in hand Wednesday.
Kenney, who ran a successful chain of hamburger places in Virginia, came to visit his daughter, Brewton resident Cathy Mathieu, but also to sell his world famous sauce to raise money to benefit the local Habitat for Humanity.
Kenney, who is a native of Edmonton in western Canada, graduated from the University of Toronto, and spent a year in Switzerland studying hotel management. He then moved on to attend the Culinary Institute of America in New York. He moved down to Virginia and opened his first business in 1952, and his first fast-food restaurant in Radford, Va., in 1958.
He also volunteered to work with the International Executive Service Care, which is a government sponsored program that sends people into different countries to teach the people how to organize and begin a business or trade.
Kenney has been involved with Habitat for Humanity for many years and in 1989 he served on the its board of directors. He served until 1995, and now sits on the building committee.
The Kenney sauce will be for sale for a limited time at the local ReStore in the shopping center across from Burger King.