Burger King, Druthers, Dairy Queen and
Genesis Travel Plaza. Bill Matherly gave it
his all in developing these successful businesses

ITS A WONDERFUL LIFE
BY DON NAPIER

I chose to call my column, “Wonderful Life,” 30+ years ago, naming it after my favorite Christmas movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life.” You’ll recall in that movie, that Clarence the angel said,”Remember, George: no man is a failure who has friends.”

I most often choose a single person, and on occasion, more than one, to be featured in my column. This edition’s choice, Bill Matherly, has indeed had a “wonderful life,” and he certainly has made a lot of friends along the way.

Matherly grew up in Chaplin, Kentucky, a small town near Louisville. His first job was at a Gulf station when he was in the 3rd grade. He cleaned bathrooms, pumped gas, and cleaned windshields. His pay: 25 cents a day.

He came from a large family, 12 in all. His parents divorced when Bill was young and he lived with his mom until she remarried. He then went to live with his dad in nearby Taylorsville. From the 6th grade through the 12th, he worked in a pool hall and also part time at a floral shop.

Matherly graduated from Mt. Washington High School, where baseball was his sport. A year after he graduated, he joined the Army, receiving basic training at Ft. Knox and advanced training at Ft. Gordon, Georgia. He was stationed at Ft. Hood from 1961-62, as the Laos Crisis was increasing.

After being discharged, Matherly started his career in earnest, taking the first of several jobs he would have in his life. This first one was for the State of Kentucky on the “sounding crew.” He next went to work in Appliance Park for General Electric in Louisville, basically making appliances. He worked his way up the ladder from fabrication to the assembly line, to building lines, eventually working to develop the industry’s first microwave.

He met his wife, Joan Miller, at a high school basketball game and the two were married two and a half years later in 1965. A year later, he was promoted to management, becoming an assistant line foreman, a job he kept for two years, before taking his next step to oven control. In 1970, he was one of 25,000 employees at Appliance Park. He was now in manufacturing engineering in the range department.

He left G.E. in 1970 and took a job with Wallensack, Inc., which made electro opticals for range finders and mine detectors at the West Virginia factory, with a military contract. After Matherly made the big move, the company up and closed, leaving Matherly married with a baby daughter (Kelly) and no job.

Landing on his feet once more, Matherly got a job with Hunkar Laboratories, as a manufacturing controller in blow molding injection (making bottles) but he was unhappy and was soon back at Appliance Park with General Electric. He got his best job yet, in the foundry division. He finally had the big job with the big company.

Crossville, Tennessee?
While working for General Electric, he began to investigate what was involved in a convenience store franchise. “I looked at McDonalds, but I didn’t qualify for that. I had a sister who was working at a Burger Queen in Louisville and she suggested I look into that,” he said.

Matherly called and eventually traveled to meet with company representatives. Their home operation was in Louisville. “I had an idea to put my store in Lawrenceburg (KY),” he said. Burger Queen said Lawrenceburg was too small and they preferred the new store to be in Crossville, Tennessee, in a new shopping center being built there.

It was February 1975 and Burger Queen officials flew Bill and his wife to Crossville to give them their first look at what would become their new home.

Jim Wilson was developing Woodmere Mall and they had the perfect place for a Burger Queen. Gondola, White Food Stores, White Food Variety, Big K, Jay’s Barber Shop and the Skating Rink were already in business there. “I liked what I saw in Crossville and felt sure I could make a go of it,” Matherly said.

“I didn’t have enough money to be a 100 percent owner, so I partnered with Burger Queen, which had 70 stores in the franchise at that time. That later grew to 300.”

By the time March rolled around, Matherly was in training in Louisville after resigning from G.E. “I adopted an attitude that I could not fail. I moved my family here April 8, 1975. I will always remember that date because it was my son’s (Kevin) birthday and mine was the next day,” Matherly said.

Matherly said Woodmere Mall represented the end of business on the north side of Crossville at that time.

Back at home, Joan Matherly sold the family’s house and all attention was placed on getting ready for opening week in Crossville. “The opening week was the worst week we ever had,” Bill said. “We built up our business and kept right on growing, despite the Burger Queen corporate office being skeptical.”

“We were successful from the start,” Matherly said. “We increased total sales every year.” As the Burger Queen grew in Crossville, Matherly started looking for new places to build. His second store was in Cookeville, then in Clinton. Next, he opened a store in Manchester and the final store in his chain was in McMinnville. Matherly and Burger Queen were partners in all five of his locations. In 1979, he became the first store in the Burger Queen chain to have $1 million in sales and he also went on to serve on the Burger Queen board of directors.

Big business move
In 1995, Matherly, building on a personal relationship he had with Joe Lee Smith, formed another successful business partnership. The two went into business together, building the Travel Center on Genesis Road. Matherly managed the store, which included a convenience store, gas pumps, and a Dairy Queen. “We opened without the Pizza Hut Express,” Matherly said, “but soon found some empty space and decided to add it. It was a successful move.”

Smith and Matherly owned the store from 1995 though 2004, selling it to Bruce Wyatt in 2004. He kept it one year and sold it.

“In 1980, I traded my interest in the four new BQ stores for 100 percent ownership in the Crossville store,” Matherly said. “We continued to build on the success of the Woodmere Mall location. Our customer base was so broad: the poor, the average, the wealthy – they all loved Burger King and we developed thousands of loyal customers.” Matherly expanded his dining room with the addition of the Glass Atrium, completed in 1979.

Burger Queen was now serving fried chicken and battered fish, and had a salad bar. Burger Queen was no longer just a burger joint, so they hired a firm to help them find the more appropriate name. In 1981, Burger Queen became Druthers. “I guess it was to go along with the slogan, that you could have your Druthers,” Matherly said.

In 1990, Burger Queen Enterprises got into financial trouble and merged with Dairy Queen. “I had the option of keeping my name as Druthers if I chose to,” Matherly said. In 1991 Matherly decided to change to Dairy Queen. The previous DQ, located next to Shaddens was purchased by DQ Corporate, so that Matherly’s DQ would be the only one in town.

In 1998 the original Druthers building burned and it was rebuilt on the same location. They reopened in July of that same year, then sold it in 1999. “This left me with the Travel Plaza as my only business,” Matherly said.

“I really wasn’t ready to retire when Bruce (Wyatt) walked in. He had just sold his interest in Tri-County Rental,” Bill said.

But he did cut back and started playing more golf, primarily at Lake Tansi, where he still plays today. Bill was involved in his businesses from the ground up. Over the years, he influenced a lot of young people and gave many of them their first job. He took what most managers thought of as a burger and ice cream operation and made a fully operating restaurant, especially at breakfast time. He made the coffee drinkers feel welcome back then and they’re still there today.

Bill has lived a wonderful life and along the way made thousands of friends. I see him and Joan most often today at Mitchell’s Drug Store, a favorite gathering place for coffee drinkers. He and Joan love to travel and many of their trips take them back to their beloved Kentucky, where he still has lots of relatives.

Bill is one of Crossville’s true success stories and we’re fortunate he took that flight to Crossville in Feb. 1975. What was General Electric’s loss, turned out to be Crossville’s gain.

Family
Bill and Joan Matherly have five children.William Dale was born in 1966 in Taylorsville, Kentucky. He lives in Topeka, Kansas. Kevin Leo was born in 1968 in Taylorsville. He lives in Knoxville, and works for Partners, Inc. Robert Craig was born in 1969, lives in Louisville and works for Nans Shop. Daughter Kelly Jo was born in Huntington, West Virginia and is a minister. The youngest is Lori Ann, born in 1978. She’s a nurse at Park West in Knoxville.

Notes
All three of Bill’s sons played college football. They have eight grandchildren, ages 9-25, with four of them in college.