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‘Roadrunner’ Mary WaterhousePeople you should knowBy LLOYD MAFFITTFive years ago a genial, hard-working young woman went to work as a tray-runner at King’s Food Host on Jefferson street.She was so conscientious about running trays without delays that when fellow employes ahead of her moved too slowly, she’d go “beep-beep” like a ladylike “Roadrunner”.This so amused her boss, Lew Wilkinson, that he nicknamed her “The Roadrunner” and even gave her a plaqueidentifying her as such.After three years, Wilkinson went to Keokuk as KFH manager and “Roadrunner” Mary Waterhouse was promoted to manager. Now she supervises the tray-toting and food-preparingactivities of 14 employes (or—as she prefers to regard them—co-workers).The former Mary Murphy, a native of Burlington, Mrs. Waterhouse quit school at 16 and went to work in the former Gardner Gould candy factory. “I packed candy and it was the best candy in the world,” she declared.When the company closed, she became an inspector for Burlington Instrument Co. When BIC moved to Texas, Mary didn’t go with it: “I’d met John by then,” she related. (John is John Raymond Waterhouse, an Oakville lad who came south to seek fame and fortune.) The couple was married Oct. 16, 1949, at Oak Street Baptist church; they now live at 1419 S. Central. The Waterhouses have a son, Roger, who recently enlisted in the Army and was sent to Ft. Leonard Wood for training.)The next chapter in Mary’s life took her to the admissions desk of Mercy hospital; after 6V2 years she joined King’s.The two KFH restaurants (Cecil Williams manages the one on Roosevelt avenue) are unique in Burlington. Customers telephone orders to the kitchen from their booths or tables, rather than reciting them to a waitress. “This makes for much faster service,” Mary explained. “The time it would take a girl to come back to the kitchen and turn in an order is saved.'*(Time is also saved during rush hours by an assembly-line technique that was explained by Mary’s field commander, Shirley Bailey: “We know when peak demand will start and a few minutes before we start heating hamburger patties and so on. As a result, we have them in varying degrees of readiness when the crowd arrives.”)The crowd arrives in greatest force at noon, But KFH is busy all day, what with odd-hour lunches and kaffee-klatches. Mary puts in a 10-hour day (the restaurant opens at 7:30 and closes at eight).Paul Tegan, veteran Burlington restaurateur, is maitre d’ and there’s a pleasant, relaxed atmosphere that accounts for King’s popularity as a downtown meeting place.“Mary is firm but pleasant,” Shirley Bailey reported. “Most of our employes are students—high schbol, college, or beauty academy—and sometimes Mary has to lay down a few guidelines for them, but she does it so genially that nobody ever takes offense.”The staff and manager seem to have a ball—Mary treats the staff as favorite nephews and nieces (she treats the regular customers that way, too—many a patron showing up for lunch, has been surprised on his birthday to find a decorated cake at his table).“Kids—little kids wanting candy, maybe, or students who’ve had lunch—sometimes find they’re a little short of money, and Mary lends them the difference,” Shirley recounted. (Mary’s duties include cashiering.)Mary soon gets to know the regular customers, and their preferences. “We have people who not only want the same things to eat day after day, but even the same table or booth,” she said.“We’re geared to a kind of arsembly-line production. We will, if someone asks, provide items not on the menu. But if it takes a lot more time, we’ll charge more for the service.” Other unusual KFH features are a no-tipping rule and a no-free-second-cup-of-coffee policy—instead, KFH serves a first cup that’s half- again as big as the regulation cafe cup. But the fastest-selling item is apple pie.The KFH chain was started in the 1950s by a young man named Larry Price, who began with a booth at the Nebraska state fair at Lincoln. In a few years he’s built the chain up to 137 units.
Newspaper Details
Burlington Sunday Hawk Eye
Burlington, Iowa, US
Sun, Jan 23, 1972
Page 17
Full Page
Clipped by
Burlington P.
IA, USA 12 Nov 2023
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