- [Narrator] This is a production of PBS Charlotte.

(upbeat music) Pepsi-Cola, a taste born in the Carolinas, but known around the world.

However, what you may not know is the role a Charlotte entrepreneur and his wife played in the history of this sweet and fizzy beverage.

The local company they founded, went on to become the oldest Pepsi bottling franchise in the country, under the leadership of their granddaughter.

This is the story of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Charlotte and the foundation of philanthropy the family business created.

(upbeat music) Twice a month, you'll find Dale Halton right here at Myers Park Country Club, cards in hand playing bridge.

- You're not bringing more diamonds over there are you?

- [Narrator] It's a friendly game, amongst friends.

- No I don't- - [Narrator] Dale is just as comfortable dealing cards as she once was making million dollar deals as CEO and President of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Charlotte.

The company started by her late grandparents, Henry and Sandy Fowler.

(piano music) (bell ringing) (horse hooves clopping) The couple married in 1903 at a time when Charlotte's population was around 20,000.

- [Dale] My grandmother was called during those days a Grand Dom that I'll never be and that's okay.

And she didn't show her heart.

My grandfather did and he was a good, good man.

My grandfather grew up on the family farm, north of Salisbury.

He came to Charlotte as a bookkeeper for Adams Grain and Feed.

- [Narrator] Fowler excelled at his job and quickly advanced, but it was a side job that changed the couples direction.

- He also did some nighttime bookkeeping from Mr. Snyder who had the Coca-Cola franchise.

And he knew that there was some money to be made in this brown water.

- [Narrator] Brown water, as it was called, the refreshing carbonated beverage that was becoming all the rage at the start of the 20th century.

In 1893, New Bern, North Carolina pharmacist, Caleb Bradham developed his own recipe, which he sold at his pharmacy.

Radom patented Pepsi-Cola in 1903 and soon after.

- [Dale] My grandfather hopped on the bandwagon.

- [Narrator] Henry may have been on board, but you still had to convince Sadie.

- [Dale] They were definitely partners in this.

In the beginning, she had to come home and my grandfather said, Sadie here taste this.

And obviously they'd been talking about it and she tasted it and she said, "Henry, that will do just fine."

He was the first franchise bottler of Pepsi in the whole world.

And my grandmother was right there with him.

They would bottle it at home at first and he'd go peddle in the day.

And they moved to the back of the blacksmith shop on West Raid.

- [Narrator] Now, if you're wondering how a Pepsi bottling franchise works.

- [Dale] They get the rights to bottle and distribute the product.

You have to pay for the franchise.

And then Pepsi-Cola Company makes its money by selling us the syrup.

- [Narrator] The Pepsi-Cola bottling Company of Charlotte grew quickly.

In 1908, Fowler bought one of the first delivery trucks to travel the roads of Charlotte.

(horn sound effect) Early in the company's history, he proved resourcefulness was a key to success in the Cola business.

- [Dale] Pepsi syrup did not have sugar in it.

The Coke syrup came with its sugar.

So when there was ever a sugar shortage, Coke modelers were at an advantage over the Pepsi bottlers 'cause we had to buy sugar.

One time, my grandfather predicted a sugar rationing.

He bought a warehouse in Wilmington, North Carolina, bought a semi and hired a driver and he stashed sugar in the warehouse in Wilmington so that when the sugar shortage came, he was in pretty good shape.

- [Narrator] Henry also took company assets very seriously.

- [Dale] There's one story of him going back out to win back a loss that one of his employers had done.

In a poker game, lost the Pepsi truck and the product on it.

He came back in, he didn't have anything.

My grandfather was really mad, but then he found out where the game was and he went back out to the game and he won the truck and product back.

(acoustic arpeggio music) - [Narrator] But where the Fowlers shined most was with their employees.

Meet Charlie Sullivan.

- [Charlie] I started at Pepsi in 1951.

I had a first cousin from Paisley, that went up there and got a job with Pepsi.

Mr. Fowler called Ray Sullivan in one day, told him, says, "If you get any more boars on that work as hard as you do get in there and get them and bring them up here."

And so I went in and talked to Mr. Fowler, he hired me at that time.

- [Narrator] Sullivan was only 16 years old when he started working for Henry.

And by the age of 17, he had his own delivery route.

- It was uptown.

Tough route because you'd have elevate, you did not have elevations back then, you had to carry them up, steps and everything.

So that was a tough job.

I worked that route for about four years.

And then I went on another route and I worked that route for 10 years.

I was on route for a total of 14 years.

- [Narrator] Some may say that was a lot of responsibility for such a young man.

Charlie though, sees it differently.

- But I call it the opportunity.

Opportunity to me because the more I sold, the more money I would make at the end of the day.

- Over the course of his career at the bottling company, he advanced through the ranks and retired as the Vice President of Sales and Marketing.

He says Fowler treated employees well, but the man had high expectations.

- [Charlie] Mr Fowler, he believed in you working.

He did not want you to stand around and laugh and talk.

He believed in you working, but he was a good man to work for him.

He was involved in the business.

He healed his own sales mediums now and he had good management team below him, but he was still involved in the business.

- [Narrator] But if he did see someone standing around, well, let's just say that not even customers were safe from Fowler's all business approach.

- [Charlie] It used to, if a customer run out of Pepsi, they could come down to the office plant and pick up Pepsi.

But one morning, this man come in early to pick up some Pepsi.

He got his Pepsi's and everything.

And he walked up in the production.

He just walked up in there just to see what were going on.

And Mr. Fowler had come out of his office.

And this man was standing there.

And Mr. Fowler didn't like people standing around, and Mr. Fowler walked up to the man and fired him.

And he wasn't even an employee.

- [Narrator] There was however, one person who could always get Henry's attention.

- [Charlie] Mrs. Sadie, that was his wife.

She used to come down on Tuesday and do the payroll.

And when she come in, Mr. Fowler stayed in the office.

And when she called him Henry, he did what Miss Sadie told him to do.

He was very good to the influence.

I've seen him farm in one day and next day, he hardly back, Mr. Fowler had a heart of gold.

He believed in you, he believed in your family and he wants to take care of that family.

He was always asking how your family was doing.

(acoustic music) (golf club swings) - [Narrator] These days.

Phil Neely's happy place is out here on the golf course.

It's a game that served him well during his career at the bottling company like Charlie Sullivan, Neely got an early start with the company where he gained a reputation for being a hard worker, advancing from a helper on the delivery truck to actually driving a forklift.

- [Phil] I started driving the float late.

Oh man, you tell him, I love that.

Now I love the dad, and Mr. Fowler.

He sat there for hours watching me load trucks.

And he told Mark, he said, "Mark, that little boy can drive that lift," - [Narrator] But things didn't always go smoothly.

- [Phil] I come out of the plant and when I hit the bottom of that ramp, he'd kneed down and bam!

(indistinct) went everywhere and Mr. Fowler was sitting in the chair.

Oh Lord, he jumped up shaking his stick, Mark, (indistinct).

(Phil laughing) - [Narrator] According to Phil, Fowler was always willing to lend a hand.

You just needed to know how to ask.

- [Phil] Oh, back then money was hard to come by.

And I needed $100.

So Mike told me, he said "Ask Mr. Fowler, But ask for 200" And I asked him, I said, "Mr. Fowler", I said, "I'm in bad shape, sir, I need 200 dollars."

He says, "What'll you do with all that money?"

(Phil laughing) I said, "Well, Mr. Fowler, I got bills I need to pay."

He said, "I'll let you have 100."

And that's what I needed, I needed 100.

He let me, he gave me the $100.

- [Narrator] Eventually Neely started driving routes, delivering Pepsi and after driving for more than a decade, executive Vice President, Darrel Holland gave Neely his next opportunity.

- [Phil] So he told me one day I hadn't been running that route now in about 12 years.

He said, "You getting old Neely.

I want you to come in here.

And I want you to go into sales."

He said, "Your mouth can big to be on a truck.

You need to be in sales."

I said, "I can't do that."

He said, "I'ma put you under my arms and I'ma gonna keep you under my arms for six months.

And if you don't like it, then I give you your route back."

I said, "I'd do it."

- [Narrator] Neely excelled in sales and managed a small team working with schools and athletic programs.

And you guessed it making lots of deals out here on the golf course.

(nostalgic piano music) In 1958, Sadie Fowler passed away, followed 13 years later by company founder, Henry Fowler in 1971.

For the next decade or so after their deaths, the company struggled.

And it was during this era when Marilyn Gallagher in 1980 found her way to Charlotte.

- My background was in human resources.

And when I moved to Charlotte and I was looking for a job and I got a job with PepsiCo Bottling Company of Charlotte.

- [Narrator] With her background, she could easily see the issues facing the company.

- [Marilyn] We had tremendous turnover.

We couldn't train anybody that the company that we, we weren't making any money, it was, we just had a lot of problems.

- [Narrator] The change was on the horizon.

The Fowler's granddaughter took the helm as President and CEO.

Dale Halton, grew up around her grandfather's business and has fond childhood memories of spending time at the plant.

- [Dale] Fascinating, I love the machinery.

I love to watch it.

I remember climbing on all the bags of sugar.

I love to climb.

Give me a tree and I was up it.

I didn't really understand at all, as a child, what it was and what it would eventually mean to me.

I love being there.

I love that the smell of the production area, all that sugar and syrup.

- [Narrator] She never though imagined that someday she'd lead the family business.

- It was a little scary thought.

But at that time, it was very unusual for a woman to be leading a business of that size.

- [Narrator] The year was 1981.

- [Dale] I hadn't been in business, but I'd done a lot of good volunteer leadership and all the years, I knew basically how to do that, but not on that scale that I was suddenly.

And I went from, as I said, from the laundry room to the boardroom and all of a sudden, whoops, what do I do now?

- [Narrator] The answer to that question was right before her.

- [Dale] We had a great team already, they just weren't, hadn't been allowed to do their jobs.

Couldn't have done it without Darrel Holland.

And he said, I'll be there for you.

And he was always, he was my COO and I just adored the man.

He was a guiding light.

He was my mentor.

- [Narrator] The duo quickly developed a strategy for the company's future.

- Darrel and I took over.

He wanted to know what I foresaw for the business.

I said, first we have to get financially sound.

And then I wanna take care of the employees.

So if we take care of them, they'll take care of us.

We'll take care of the company.

And that's what we did.

- [Marilyn] Dale was really great about doing things to help the employees, and went the way to stop the turnover was to increase the pay of the employees 'cause we were barely paying probably minimum wage at that time.

We paid the employees more.

We did, improved the benefits.

- [Narrator] Halton said she always led the company with her grandparents in the back of her mind, never more so than when it came time to renovate the South Boulevard plant.

- I remember we had saved enough money to pay for half of the reconstruction and I was working one morning and I felt these eyes boring into me, my grandfather and did not like debt.

And I looked up and I'm sure he was looking down at me.

I looked at that portrait, and I said, we saved enough money for half of it and we'll pay for the other half quickly.

And we paid it off in three years.

- [Narrator] She credits much of her success in business to remaining humble.

- I just felt like I'm no better than anyone else.

I feel like I'm just an average person who has been lucky.

And I tried to represent the company in a good way and just do the best I could.

- [Narrator] Values passed down to the employees.

- [Marilyn] If I had a question about how I should handle something or how I should do something, I was usually told what's the right thing to do.

And that was a real freedom to work with a company like that.

- [Narrator] In the 1980s, Dale joined an extremely small number of women heading up large companies.

But by 1986, she had established herself as a leader in the community.

- I remember the first board I was asked to be on.

I meant to say, Darrel, I'm not ready for this.

And he gave me a lecture and sent me out the door.

And that made me feel good.

Someone had faith in me that I could do it.

And that was always a good feeling.

- She did join that board and became one of only two women at the time serving on the Charlotte City Board of First Citizens Bank.

Back at the bottling company, Marilyn Gallagher says she feels fortunate to have worked for Halton.

- She'll push you to do things that are good for you.

So, and that it helps develop you, but more maybe you wouldn't see the need or wouldn't do it before, you know?

Yeah, no, she's good that way.

- But according to Gallagher, Halton didn't stop there.

- [Marilyn] I had the benefit of having a female, head of the company.

I had a baby back then and I asked if I could bring my baby to work with me because I had no one to back me up.

I had no person who could do my job if I took off three, four months, came back after 10 days.

And I had him there for nine months.

Everybody loved having a baby there.

He got a lot of attention, never was sick a day.

And Dale Halton gave him his first drink out of a cup and guess what it was?

Pepsi-Cola.

And she was right there too.

She would come in and pick him up if I was on the phone.

And if he woke up, she'd come in and pick them up and walk around with him and everything.

So he was kind of a benefit for everybody too, because there's nothing like playing with the baby during the day when you're at work.

Say Dale's just real easy going, lovely person.

She's very supportive, very supportive of everyone.

She was a good leader.

(contemplative music) - [Narrator] Halton's leadership went way beyond the walls of the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company, former UNCC Athletic Director, Judy Rose, first met Dale while fundraising for a new scoreboard for the university.

Like Halton, Rose found herself leading in what at the time, was mostly a man's world.

She became one of only a handful of women, college athletic directors in the nation.

She says Halton took her under her wing.

- [Judy Rose] And she doesn't just say, she's gonna be your mentor, she walks the talk.

She, along with Pat Rogers became two very strong female mentors for me in a mostly male dominated profession.

I would get a phone call from Dale and she'd go, Judy, what are you in Ken doing on March 16th?

And I'm like, I don't know.

And she goes, well, now you're going to the Red Sword Ball.

And I'm like, "the what?"

And she said, "The Red Sword Ball."

I said, "What is the Red Sword Ball?"

She goes, "well, it's a fundraiser for cancer and everybody that you are gonna need to know and ask money for will be there.

You are invited, you and Ken, to sit at our table."

- [Dale] I like helping others.

I feel that if I can, I should and I want to.

I didn't realize what I was doing.

I just knew she needed to get out and get known.

And it didn't take long for her to do it all on her own.

And she's done an unbelievable, wonderful, super job.

And she's a dear dear friend.

- [Narrator] Halton's generosity has far exceeded that of mentoring to others.

She credits her grandparents for laying the strong financial foundation that has enabled her to do so much for the community.

Since 2006, she's given millions of dollars to various schools, nonprofits, and charitable organizations.

At UNCC, Halton's generosity has helped countless students reach their educational goals.

The Halton name is most prominently displayed in Halton Arena.

The Dale Halton reading room in the library where memorabilia from Pepsi has proudly displayed and the Halton Wagner Tennis Complex.

- [Lady] She's one of our strongest supporters.

- [Narrator] But Dale isn't seeking recognition.

When she donated funds for the field house at the football stadium, she secretly worked with the university to name it for her friend, Judy Rose, who was under the impression that it would bear the Halton name.

- And I look at it and I was speechless, and I am never speechless, but I was totally speechless.

And I just was in shock, but that's so typical of Dale naming it in my honor.

- At Central Piedmont Community College's main campus, you'll find the 1000 plus seat Dale F Halton theater.

And in Huntersville, the recently opened Halton school.

The school is specifically for children diagnosed with Asperger's and autism.

- [Marilyn] Her heart is just always in the right place.

- [Dale] I just feel like giving back is just something that's just normal, natural.

And it just, it's just what I love doing.

I am so thankful that I have the ability to give back and help the community and help people and do good things for this part of our world.

(piano music) (driving indie music) - [Narrator[ In 2005, the company her grandparents built from the ground up celebrated 100 years of business.

- [Marilyn] We're the oldest Pepsi franchise.

And we had a big party.

One of the neat things we did for the employees besides having them and their spouse there at Cirque de Soleil did a performance and everything.

It was fabulous.

Besides that we had a special thing for the employees.

We gave each employee $1,000 for every year of service.

We had employees that had 40 years of service.

That was pretty exciting.

I mean, you should've seen the crowd go wild.

- [Narrator] But after a century of filling bottles of Pepsi, the time had come for Halton to sell the family business.

- [Dale] So I sold.

(indistinct) cried over the whole process.

I just, I didn't realize, how deep my feelings were for that business and for what my grandparents had started and left and enabled me to do for the employees, for the company and in the franchise.

When I sold, I just felt like I'd let them all down.

They all came and gave me hugs and say, "it's okay, Ms. Dale, we'll be all right".

And the ones who left, some of them were waiting for me to retire.

So some retired and some got great jobs.

- [Narrator] At the time of the sale, there were nearly 400 employees at the Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Charlotte.

- [Dale] There was a loyalty.

And of course in modern day times, you couldn't do some of the things that you've used to like in family business.

But we did that as much as we could.

And I think our employees felt that we were family.

(triumphant piano music) - [Narrator] When the Fowlers started their business back in 1905, it was impossible for them to know where bottling the fizzy brown water would lead.

- [Dale] It would be wonderful if the people in our franchise area knew about what a young couple started, totally entrepreneurs, a brand new field of business and what they did and what they brought to this community and the legacy that they have left for me to give, to help the community.

They did this so that I am able to help others.

I believe that the more you have, the more you ought to help.

(happy upbeat music) - [ Narrator] The Pepsi-Cola Bottling Company of Charlotte's location on South Boulevard is long gone, but the legacy that Henry and Sadie Fowler and their granddaughter Dale Halton left to the Charlotte community is impossible to measure.

Something to think about the next time you pour a glass of Pepsi.

Thank you for watching this edition of "Trail Of History".

(upbeat music) A production of PBS, Charlotte.