Glen Bell, founder of Taco Bell chain, dies at 86

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Glen W. Bell, Jr., the innovator and entrepreneur who tapped a hunger for Mexican fare as Americans discovered fast food, creating Taco Tia, El Taco and in 1962 his signature Taco Bell, has died. He was 86.

Bell, who had suffered from Parkinson’s disease since 1985, died Sunday at his home in Rancho Santa Fe, Calif., the company announced. No cause of death was given.

“We changed the eating habits of an entire nation,” Bell told Debra Lee Baldwin, author of his 1999 biography, “Taco Titan: The Glen Bell Story.”

We’ll have a staff story soon at latimes.com/obituaries.

-- Keith Thursby