William B. "Bill" Darden was an American entrepreneur best known for founding the Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns several casual dining restaurant chains in the United States.
Born in 1919 in Waycross, Georgia, Darden entered the restaurant business at a young age. He opened his first restaurant, The Green Frog, in his hometown of Waycross when he was just 19 years old, defying the segregation norms of the time by refusing to segregate customers by race.