Restrictions to Access

No restrictions. Open for research.

Restrictions to Use

No usage restrictions.

Copyright Notice

Copyright is retained by the authors of items in these papers, or their descendants, as stipulated by United States copyright law.

Preferred Citation

[Identification of item], in the Ralph W. Ketner Papers #5774, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Acquisitions Information

Received from Linda Ketner in March 2018 (Acc. 103328).

Sensitive Materials Statement

Manuscript collections and archival records may contain materials with sensitive or confidential information that is protected under federal or state right to privacy laws and regulations, the North Carolina Public Records Act (N.C.G.S. § 132 1 et seq.), and Article 7 of the North Carolina State Personnel Act (Privacy of State Employee Personnel Records, N.C.G.S. § 126-22 et seq.). Researchers are advised that the disclosure of certain information pertaining to identifiable living individuals represented in this collection without the consent of those individuals may have legal ramifications (e.g., a cause of action under common law for invasion of privacy may arise if facts concerning an individual's private life are published that would be deemed highly offensive to a reasonable person) for which the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill assumes no responsibility.

Processed: May 2019

Encoded by: Laura Smith

The following terms from Library of Congress Subject Headings suggest topics, persons, geography, etc. interspersed through the entire collection; the terms do not usually represent discrete and easily identifiable portions of the collection--such as folders or items.

Clicking on a subject heading below will take you into the University Library's online catalog.

• Businesspeople--North Carolina--Biography.
• Civic leaders--North Carolina.
• Food Lion.
• Food Town Stores.
• Grocery trade--North Carolina.
• Grocery trade--United States.
• Ketner, Ralph W.
• Supermarkets.

Ralph W. Ketner (1920-2016) was born in Rimertown, N.C., in Rowan County. When he was 3, his family moved to Salisbury, N.C., where his father started a butcher shop. Ketner started delivering groceries when he was 9. He later went on to study at Tri-State College in Angola, Ind. In December 1957, Ketner, his brother, Brown Ketner, and Wilson Smith started Food Town in Salisbury, N.C. Food Town was later purchased by Belgian corporation Delhaize, and its name was changed to Food Lion in 1982.

Personal and business papers of Ralph W. Ketner, co-founder of the Food Lion grocery store chain. Collection includes personal and family photographs, business correspondence from Ketner's tenure as CEO of the company, personal correspondence related to Ketner's broad civic, political and philanthropic interests, scrapbooks on Ketner's career, and video recordings with Ketner talking about leadership and the history of the company.

• Image Folders: PF-5774/1-2
• Oversize Paper Folder: OPF-5774/1
• Oversize Volumes: SV-5774/1-4