Ken Rosenthal, Founder of Panera Bread’s Forerunner, Dies at 81

PressNewsAgency

Factuality

Ownership

Ken Rosenthal, Founder of Panera Bread’s Forerunner, Dies at 81

Ken Rosenthal, who opened a bakery cafe in the St. Louis area, with sourdough bread as its star, and built it into a small chain that would become Panera Bread, died on Feb. 14 at his home in Scottsdale, Ariz. He was 81. His wife, Linda Rosenthal, said the cause was Alzheimer’s disease. Mr. Rosenthal had no interest in running a retail bakery in the mid-1980s, when he and his wife owned a women’s apparel store called Kenlyn’s in Chesterfield, Mo…