Shelby’s BR-549

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By Dr. Jim Foster

 

“The publisher of the Shelbina Democrat will give a name or two, off the record. The Ford dealer prefers doing business here to other places where he has been big in motor cars- Los Angeles and Fort Worth and St. Louis. The steak-house owner would not know because farmers are too busy to patronize him much.” Jack Rice, St. Louis Post-Dispatch (St. Louis, Missouri) July 13, 1975

Jack Rice left his hometown of Shelbina, Missouri, located in Shelby County, to practice his skills as a gifted writer that led to lucrative employment and a career that gained him much respect as a journalist. Even though he left, his heart forever remained in Shelby County as he found time to write and reflect on his childhood observations in this county whose economy was propelled by agriculture and the demanding work of farm families. Jack’s comment featured in this article was aimed towards those farmers who were believed to have been quite wealthy.

In Jack’s comment, the steak house owner was Bill Clapper whose Clapper’s Steak House was located along the south side of West Chestnut Street. If the wind was in the right direction, our family could smell Bill’s world-famous steaks and hand cut French fries cooking all the way out to our prairie farm home 3 ½ miles northwest of town. Standing on the sidewalk and looking across Center Street to the northeast, The Bob Engle Ford Dealership was in full view and Bob was the man who gave up big city car dealerships to come back to Shelby County where he had been raised at Shelbyville along with his brother Gene who had a Chrysler-Plymouth and Dodge vehicle dealership and also sold Oliver farm implements on the south edge of Shelbyville.

While Jack Rice and Bill Clapper may have thought farmers were too busy to patronize Bill’s business, I myself have my own personal theory as to what may have captured the attention of farmers and their families beginning in the fall of 1969, especially on Saturday evenings at 6pm Central Time.

The executives at the CBS television network were looking to improve viewership and produced an idea to compete with the NBC network that found high ratings with their comedy variety show called “Laugh-In.”  The comedy variety show “Hee Haw” set in the fictional “Kornfield Kounty” somewhere in the southern states became an instant hit with its co-hosts country music stars, Buck Owens and Roy Clark. The two opened this weekly show that aired in our part of the country on Saturday evenings beginning at 6p.m. as families were gathered around the kitchen table for supper. Owens and Clark shared the stage with a very large cast of musicians and comedic actors such as Minnie Pearl, Grandpa Jones, Stringbean, Archie Campbell, Gordy Tapp, Cathy Baker, Charlie Farquharson (KORN radio station host), Gunilla Hutton, Junior Samples (used car dealer) and Miss Lulu Roman to name just a few of this great cast.  Both rural and urban people became such huge fans of Hee Haw that they ate at home on Saturday nights instead of going out to eat. For those living in Shelby County, Bob Engle caused quite a stir with a car sale to Miss Lulu Roman whom he had met at a convention sponsored by The Full Gospel Businessmen’s Fellowship International of which he was a co-chairperson. Lulu was a recovering drug addict while Bob and his wife Lorrie were recovering alcoholics. The Engle’s only child, a son named “Robin” had died in a hospital in Troy, Illinois while having his tonsils removed when he was five years old. The Engles and Miss Lulu Roman had found faith in The Holy Spirit.

Diehard Hee Haw fans know Junior Samples’ used car lot phone number as “BR-549.” When I was in high school my good friend Layne Snider’s license plate was BR549 which goes to show how serious Hee Haw fandom was and still is in Shelby County and throughout the world. And on Saturday nights? I still remember going for a ride into Shelbina with my parents in their used FORD LTD from Bob Engles’ after watching Hee Haw and seeing the people waiting in line to get into Clapper’s Steakhouse. Those people came from all over and it was oh so good. Burger, fries and bottle of grape pop for me, please!