ROGERS -- The view of Rogers from behind the windows of Marion's Donuts, 816 W. Walnut St., has changed over 40 years, but inside the customers have created an extended family.
"Generations have come here," said Lisa Norman, who stopped by the shop for doughnuts and conversation last week with her father, Bill Norman.
Her grandfather, her dad and her kids all have been regulars at the shop, Lisa Norman said. The group of core customers has celebrated each other's birthdays and weddings, and mourned funerals together. Everyone is on a first-name basis. Lisa Norman said she calls them family.
What makes the doughnut shop home is owner Marion Ramsey, customers said.
Ramsey has been a constant at the doughnut shop since she took a week vacation from her job at Bates Hospital in 1976 to help her brother Dave Ellis with the doughnut shop he'd just bought. She's worked there ever since, buying the franchise in 1992.
The shop will close Sunday. Ramsey and her family will move the contents out, and the building will be razed to make room for a Walmart Neighborhood Market.
The shop was built in 1971 as a doughnut shop, and it's been nothing else through the years, Ramsey said. She's the fifth owner, and claims the Daylight Donuts franchise as Rogers' first doughnut shop.
When the shop first opened, the city was much smaller. Dixieland and New Hope roads were dirt back in the day, the Normans said.
Customers remember Walnut Street as the main gateway to downtown shopping, and Eighth Street, then U.S. 71, funneled cars past the shop onto Walnut.
"At one time, that intersection was the busiest intersection in Rogers," said Dave Ramsey, Marion Ramsey's son.
The shop doors opened at 5:30 a.m., he said.
"We couldn't find a place to put 'em, and three hours later they'd be gone," he said.
It was the only doughnut shop in town, Marion Ramsey said.
A burger joint named Big Reds once stood in the parking lot in front of the doughnut shop, which was sandwiched between an IGA and a Walmart store. The Sands Hotel, now demolished, stood around the corner on Eighth Street. There was a movie theater, laundromat and clothing stores in the shopping center.
In the 1970s and 1980s, everyone cruised Walnut Street, Dave Ramsey said. They'd loop from McDonald's to Sonic and back again. Walmart closed at 9 p.m., so teens hung out in the parking lot, Marion Ramsey said.
The city gradually grew to the west. The circle of friends grew too. Many of Marion's regulars said they started visiting on the way to work or by taking the kids. Now many of them are retired. Ramsey said she loves to hear the World War II veterans' stories, and thinks they should write them down. Most of her customers live within 10 blocks or so of the shop, she said.
"This is her social life," Dave Ramsey said.
Betty Julian said when her children were young, it was a Saturday morning tradition to run out for doughnuts. Her youngest is 31, but she still stops by for weekday coffee and hellos around the room.
People notice if someone misses a day, Sue Terry said. She's been coming every day for 11 years.
If someone misses a few days, Marion Ramsey will check up on them, sometimes passing around get-well cards to the shop friends before mailing them, Julian said.
"She's the heart and soul of this place," she said.
Everyone has a place in the shop: the newspaper reader by the window, the long table of friends, a couple in the far booth.
Sports or politics take turns dominating the talk at the round table near the door.
"We solve all the problems in the world," Dick Gabbert quipped from his seat there.
Politicians drop by from time to time, he said.
Marion Ramsey, 70, sits in her corner and watches the room, joining in the conversation. If business is slow, she watches the traffic along Walnut Street. When an advance order comes in, she writes a ticket and tapes it to the side of the cash register.
The last time she thought she'd have to move the shop was in the early 1990s. Neighboring businesses got eviction notices, and the buildings surrounding her became corporate offices.
"Walmart changed their minds about me, and I ended up being the only one to stay here," she said.
She was notified six months ago that the building was coming down, she said.
When the shop closes she will retire. Her son, Matt Ramsey, and his wife, Kim, cook for her. They will set up two concession trailers at 4440 N.E. Hudson Road, just past the airport, in early December: one for doughnuts and one for quick meals of burgers and chicken strips.
Everything will come out of the shop once it closes, even the window with a fading "Marion's Donuts" painted on it, Matt Ramsey said.
Customers said it's sad that they will lose their meeting place. Some said they might visit other doughnut shops; others said they'll probably stay home.
Martha Wierick said the closing will be difficult for her.
"When this closes up, I can do without the doughnuts, but I'm going to have a hard time doing without Marion's friendship," Wierick said.
The conversation stopped for a minute as those around the table nodded. One of the table mates got up and grabbed the coffee pot for refills.
They'll have the memories, Terry said.
She's looked out the front windows for almost 40 years, Marion Ramsey said. The buildings and the owners change, even if people come for generations, she said.
"Most people are going to remember who they met here," she said.
NW News on 11/27/2014