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McDonald Team Room: Everyone Knows Virginia
or over 50 years McDonald Tea Room brought Charlie built the building by Virginia's vision Crocker initiated a radio series on the most F thousands of people to Gallatin, MO – all sharing a and oral blueprints, and he also built the tables and interesting restaurants in the United States, Virginia great dining experience. When radio was a media in chairs. But he also helped Virginia build the business. was the first person interviewed! its golden era, Duncan Hines ranked the Tea Room in Night after night he would go down to the railroad In 1964 the editors of Better Homes and Gallatin as "one of the 10 best places to eat in station to rub elbows with the men who plied his old Gardens published a book of 90 of the country's best America." trade, the traveling salesmen. His motive was restaurants. They called it "Famous Foods from A southern lady from an affluent Texas family, advertising. He knew that if you wanted to pass the Famous Places." McDonald Tea Room was selected, Virginia married Charlie McDonald, a traveling word along on anything, you told a traveling along with places like Four Seasons in New York, salesman, in 1914. When Charlie's mother passed salesman. And just as he figured, soon a sizable Maxim's in Houston, Palmer House in Chicago, away in Missouri, Virginia and Charlie moved to number of "drummers" were finding their way to Broadmoore in Colorado Springs, and Sun Valley Gallatin to care for his father and to make Gallatin Gallatin and Virginia's cooking. Lodge in Idaho. their home. But Charlie's belle of Texas became ill Virginia, she insisted that everyone call her Former President Herbert Hoover tasted her with tuberculosis after their arrival here. Virginia was that, was the Tea Room in its prime. She "enter- food as did Margaret and Mary Jane Truman, actress forced to take the "open air" cure, resting in a many- tained" people as well as impressing their taste buds Martha Scott, baseball magnate Branch Rickey, and windowed room that was known as Maple Shade, due with delightful food. Wearing one of her wide- former Missouri governor Arthur M. Hyde. Virginia's to the large tree just outside the window. brimmed hats, Virginia would sit in the Crystal Room, corn muffins were a weakness of J.C. Penney, the chain store founder whose boyhood home is just 13 miles south of Gallatin in Hamilton. Gallatin almost lost the Tea Room after Virginia's death in 1969. Joyce Hall, the founder of Hallmark Cards, often came up from Kansas City to dine with Virginia. At the time the great Crown Center development project was in planning, Mr. Hall considered a complete relocation of the Tea Room within the complex of stores and exclusive shops. The idea was dropped because of the negative impact
Everyone Knew Virg i n i a!Everyone Knew Virg i n i a! on Gallatin's economy. At the time, Hallmark did not have a subsidiary business, such as a greeting card facility or warehouse, that could be placed in Gallatin to supplant the Tea Room. Cars with out-of-state license plates were For seven years Virginia lay in that room. conversing with the dining public while she cajoled commonly seen parked on West Grand Street in Charlie quit his traveling job. His father, Sam vegetables into works of art that would garnish her Gallatin at McDonald Tea Room. Local civic and McDonald, had built a shop beside the house now salads and relish trays. Locally viewed as eccentric, social clubs frequently held luncheons and meetings
housing the ailing Virginia. The shop evolved into a Virginia did things her own way. at the Tea Room.
blacksmith, harness and carriage shop and, later, a No bills were ever placed on the tables in
During ownership by Betty and Tom Cobb of
grocery store. Charlie tried to enhance a meager Virginia's time. She was always in position behind a grocery business by adding a line of hardware. But he small kneehole desk, dispensing a gracious kind of still could not make ends meet. hospitality, and a running commentary for as long as Since the McDonald store was close to the one cared to linger and Kansas City, the kitchen was modernized. Dottie and Jim Stotts of Liberty operated the establishment from 1979 until Dorva and Bob Jones of Kirksville assumed responsibilities.
school, Charlie decided to add a lunch counter and listen. She soon serve hot dogs and soups to school children. Soon, mentally cataloged the others were coming to eat at Charlie's counter. All the favorite dishes of her while, Virginia lay in her bed thinking about Charlie's regular patrons. If she lunch counter and his struggle to manage the family knew you were coming,
Eventually, some time after Bob's death, Dorva auctioned off the contents of the Tea Room. Bud and Jean Kirkendoll
affairs alone. Charlie had borrowed money from the your preferences would
— Midwest Living, June 1988 resurrected the business,
bank and was not yet able to pay it back. be served at your table completely remodeling the
From this adversity, Virginia rose from her whether they were on Tea Room in the style and
sickbed to take over the lunch counter. McDonald Tea the menu for the day or not. It was one of those grandeur of Virginia's
Room made its official debut in 1931. It began in the special touches her friends loved. In 1949 Virginia times, only to see the building and entire contents go
area that was commonly compiled a cookbook up in flames on July 4, 2001.
known as the Garden Room (the main entrance room). The north part of the Crystal Room was opened in 1939. Even this addition did not alleviate the waiting that people had to endure to eat at the Tea Room. People would wait on the patio in good weather, and Virginia would serve her famous iced tea. Virginia McDonald, a Southern belle whose restaurant in Gallatin, MO, gained national acclaim by a No. 1 Book-of-the-Month cook book and radio fame (the only cook book to do so to this very day)! Charlie and a helper built the final portion of the Crystal Room around the lean-to that had housed Sam McDonald's original blacksmith, harness and carriage shop. It was a labor of love. The initials "V" and "Mc" were prominent in exterior masonry. Inside, the "V" pattern was repeated in the decor built by Charlie for his belle. which revealed many of her culinary secrets. There were four printings, and in 1950 it was the only cook book ever to be honored as a Book-of-the-Month Club selection. When Betty There really was no reason for the existence of McDonald Tea Room except that a great cook decided to go into business next door to her home. Virginia's success is as American as any Horatio Alger story. With no business training and facing an $8,000 debt while recovering from several years of serious illness, she triumphed.
"My mother was an aristocrat in the South and never learned to cook, or even cared, until after the Civil War. She vowed then that all her daughters would know their way around a kitchen."
— Virginia McDonald (1887-1969)
“When we walked in for lunch, the first thing we noticed was the smell: a yeasty, come hither aroma of rolls fresh out of the oven.”
Gallatin’s Richard H. Cruzen Leads Exploration of Antarctica: Operation Highjump Operation Highjump
Two small black “dots” in the lower center of this photo are explorers, men who fought frigid ice conditions to explore Antarctica; ocean waters are shown in the foreground Two small black “dots” in the lower center of this photo are explorers, men who fought frigid ice conditions to explore Antarctica; ocean waters are shown in the foreground
Admiral Richard H. Cruzen (1897-1970) was a graduate of Between the years of 1925 and 1937 Richard Cruzen served Gallatin High School and became one of Gallatin's most decorated aboard several cruisers, battleships, and destroyers. Then his next sons. During his exciting military career including polar explorations, assignment, as commander of the 65-year-old barkentine named the he received many honors including the Legion of Merit, the Atlantic Bear, took him into the stormy Atlantic ice pack. From 1939 to 1941 he Fleet Clasp, the Second Nicaraguan Campaign Medal, the Yangtze was with the U.S. Antarctic Service Expedition, second in command to Service Medal, the American Defense Service Medal, the Fleet Clasp, Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd, the veteran explorer who led the the American Area Campaign Medal, Philippine Liberation Ribbon expedition in search of geographical and with two bronze stars, and World War II Victory Medal. scientific data. After graduating from Gallatin But he is best known for his exploration of the Antarctic. According to a Navy report, 1,000 High School in 1914, he attended miles of new coastline was discovered the Virginia Military Institute (VMI) on exploratory trips by the Bear and Byrd's sea plane. Commended by in Lexington, VA, and the Severn School in Severna Park, MD. He was then appointed to the U.S. Secretary of the Navy Frank Knox for Naval Academy. As a young his “superior seamanship, ability, midshipman, Cruzen served courage, determination, efficiency and aboard the USS Mississippi, good judgment in dangerous emergencies,” Cruzen was one of the 16 operating with the Atlantic Fleet during the summer of 1918. A year later, he graduated from the members of the 1939-41 expedition who Naval Academy and was received the Antarctic Expedition commissioned an ensign. Being 1947 – Secretary of the Navy James V. Forrestal congratulates Rear Admiral Richard E. Byrd and Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen, commander of the South Pole task force shortly after arriving back at Washington, D.C. on the USS Mount Olympus, flagship of the Navy Antarctic expedition. Looking on, Medal, presented in November 1946. On Dec. 2, 1946, Cruzen once more set sail for the Antarctic continent. This time, as Task Force Commander advanced in rank to lieutenant on June 7, 1925, Cruzen served in various capacities with the U.S. Navy and was then promoted to lieutenant commander in 1935,
Rear Admiral Richard H. Cruzen from left, is Fleet Admiral Chester W. Nimitz, chief of naval operations. with Rear Admiral Byrd of the Navy's Antarctic Developments Project, also commander in 1941, captain on June 20, 1942, and finally to rear known as “Operation High Jump,” Cruzen led a force of 13 ships carrying admiral on April 1, 1944. After WWII, he served as operations officer of the Seventh Fleet in the some 4,000 men, including Pacific and later as commander meteorologists, zoologists, physicists, of the USS Birmingham. and experts from oceanographic institutes. Besides looking for new scientific data, another purpose of the expedition was to train Navy personnel and to test standard Navy ships and other equipment in cold weather operations. Cruzen navigated through an ice pack of several hundred miles before reaching Little America. Icebergs and unpredictable weather were formidable foes during the course of this expedition. Among the discoveries made during the 1946-47 expedition was the sighting of two “oases,” one a region of ice-free lakes and land. More than 300,000 square miles of unpathed territory were charted on aerial mapping operations. Their observations proved that radical changes would have to be made on existing maps of the Antarctic. One explorer group eastward, another westward; Admiral Cruzen’s central group based on Ross Shelf Admiral Richard H. Cruzen died on April 15, 1970.