Couple Ran Restaurant For 32 Years

RACHEL DICKERSON/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS Virgil (left) and June Carter of Rocky Comfort ran Longview Restaurant together for 32 years.
RACHEL DICKERSON/MCDONALD COUNTY PRESS Virgil (left) and June Carter of Rocky Comfort ran Longview Restaurant together for 32 years.

Virgil Carter of Rocky Comfort and his wife June ran Longview Restaurant together for 32 years.

Virgil grew up in Bethpage. He and June married in 1963, and they moved to Rocky Comfort where they have lived ever since. When they got married, he was working at a chicken plant where he started working at age 16. They raised chickens and cattle on their farm.

"We were raising chickens. We had several chicken houses years ago," June said.

In 1972, they bought the Longview Restaurant. It was built in 1948.

June said they got into the restaurant business because her parents were in the carnival food business and she was used to the food industry.

"If I hadn't known the food business, I wouldn't have gotten into it," she said.

Virgil said his role in the restaurant was to do "everything no one else wanted to do -- anything June told me to do."

He said they had lots of regular customers, coming from towns like Bella Vista, Pineville, Anderson, Goodman, Neosho, Joplin, Webb City, Granby, Monet, Wheaton and Cassville. He said one couple from Springfield came to visit a few times a year.

"We stayed busy," he said.

"I even catered company picnics," he said, noting he had a trailer made into a kitchen and would prepare food onsite for such events.

The restaurant served foods such as fried chicken, hamburgers, hot dogs, corn dogs, brisket, cobblers and pies, he said.

June said, "My daughter helped me from the time she was in the second or third grade until we sold it in 2006. Our son helped some too."

After they sold the restaurant, she went to work at Crowder College in the cafeteria, she said.

Virgil said he had a full-time hired hand to help him with farming while he was running the restaurant. He had cows and chickens, cut his own hay and combined fescue seed.

"Both our kids helped us," June said.

Now Virgil only has cattle. June takes care of her mother, who is 93 and lives with them.

"Running the cafe, we've had a lot of prestigious people come in, Roy Clark, J.B. Hunt, Sam Walton, all kinds of senators and congressmen," Virgil said. "The Republican club would meet there and have guest speakers. Elvis Presley never did stop in," he said.

General News on 04/11/2019