Born in 1919 in
Jackson,
Tennessee, he grew up there at 291 W. Deaderick Street, and graduated from
Jackson High School in 1938. During
World War II Rogers served in the
United States Army Air Corps as a
B-24 pilot reaching the rank of
captain. Rogers started in the restaurant business as a short-order cook in 1947, at the
Toddle House in
New Haven, Connecticut. By 1949, he had become a regional manager with the now-defunct
Memphis-based restaurant chain, and moved to
Atlanta. There he met
Tom Forkner, whom he bought a house from in the Atlanta suburb of
Avondale Estates. Forkner pressed Rogers to go into business together for a quick-service, sit-down restaurant in Avondale. == Waffle House ==