Hundreds Pack Memorial Service For Waffle House Co-Founder Joe Rogers Sr.

ATLANTA, GA -- About 300 people packed a Midtown conference center Wednesday to say goodbye to Joe Wilson Rogers Sr., the co-founder of Waffle House.

The hallway leading to the memorial service at the Georgia Tech Hotel & Conference Center was decorated with mementos of Rogers' life, including photos of his time in the military as a captain with the Army Air Corps, along with the early days of his restaurant career.

Rogers passed away March 3 at the age of 97, his family said. Several corporate employees of the restaurant, badges on display, were in attendance as well as family, friends and of course, loyal customers.

Read more: Joe Rogers Sr., co-founder of Waffle House, dies at 97

Speakers at the memorial service shared vignettes centered on Rogers' nearly obsessive love for the customer.

A funeral program featured quotes from family members, including his son Joe Rogers Jr., chairman of Waffle House.

"My father genuinely loved every customer who walked into a Waffle House, and customers immediately understood that," Rogers Jr. was quoted as saying. "The customer always came first for him, and he made sure the customer came first for everyone who worked with him."

Rogers Sr. got his start in the restaurant business after World War II, when he joined Toddler House in New Haven, Conn. He spent his time working the grill by day and learning the accounting end of the business from the eatery's manager and his wife.

Soon, he was transferred to Avondale Estates near Decatur, where he was promoted to manager of the restaurant's Southeast division.

He became fast friends with his next-door neighbor, Tom Forkner, a real estate agent.

The duo opened the first Waffle House on Labor Day in 1955, their business cemented with a firm handshake.

But Rogers' career with Toddle House continued upward. He sold his interest in Waffle House after he was promoted to vice president of Toddle House and transferred to Memphis, where headquarters was based.

His interest in ownership, which Toddle House didn't offer, led him to leave the eatery in 1961 and rejoined Folkner in Atlanta at Waffle House.

The chain quickly grew, surpassing 400 locations by the end of the 1970s. Soon thereafter, Folkner and Rogers stepped down from day-to-day operations. But Rogers, ever the executive, was known for showing up at the company's Norcross headquarters late in life.

Today Waffle House has more than 40,000 employees in more than 1,900 locations.

Images via Craig Johnson / Patch