Former Wimpy's Drive-In owner Freeman Lewis dies

Freeman Lewis, the former owner of Wimpy’s Drive-In in Cape Girardeau, died Friday in Cape Girardeau. He was 94.

Lewis owned Wimpy’s Drive-In and grocery store from 1942 to 1973 along with his parents, Fred and Ethel Lewis, and brothers, Frank and Bill Lewis.

Lewis and his parents purchased the existing Wimpy’s hamburger stand for $800 in 1942, when Freeman Lewis was 19.

Jon Lewis spoke of his father Freeman as an optimistic, good-natured guy who had to deal with a lot in his life, especially growing up on a farm during the Great Depression, then essentially starting a business when he was 19 — an age when most people haven’t begun to think ahead.

But Freeman Lewis did, buying a small stand next to a gas station in front of Arena Park in Cape Girardeau and selling Wimpyburgers to people who came to get a good, quick meal and spend some time with friends.

This picture from the 1940s shows Cape Girardeau's original Wimpy's, at right, near the entrance to Arena Park in Cape Girardeau. A sign on the building promotes its five-cent hamburgers.Southeast Missourian file

“I was always impressed by all the stories I would hear about memories people had, even in the last month or two,” said Rob Lewis, another of Freeman Lewis’ sons.

“People would go, ‘Oh, your dad owned Wimpy’s!’ That seemed like a major place in Cape Girardeau in that era,” Rob Lewis said, adding, “People would come in there to meet people, have a hamburger — nothing very formal about it.”

Jon Lewis said he was impressed by the number of people who have approached him to say working at Wimpy’s was their first job.

“I just think, ‘Oh, yes, there was any number of people in this community ... who their first job was working for my dad as a curb hop,’” Jon Lewis said. “There they learned some basic values and responsibilities, working for my dad and his brothers, important lessons in life that any of us might learn from that first job we had as a teenager.”

Jon and Rob Lewis worked at Wimpy’s themselves as teenagers, but neither wanted to get into the restaurant business, they said.

Their uncle, Bill Lewis, reopened Wimpy’s at a new location at 506 S. Kingshighway in 1974. It closed in 1997.

Jon Lewis said his father’s family had moved into town in the late 1930s. He’d asked his father earlier this week whether he regretted not being a farmer, “and he said ‘no,’ that farming was hard work, and I said, ‘Wait a minute; restaurant work’s not easy!’ I guess it’s just a matter of perspective,” Jon Lewis said.

Visitation for Freeman Lewis will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at Ford and Sons Mount Auburn Funeral Home in Cape Girardeau and from 1 to 2 p.m. Thursday at Centenary United Methodist Church in Cape Girardeau.

The memorial service will be at 2 p.m. Thursday at the church, with Rev. David Conley officiating. Burial will be private.

mniederkorn@semissourian.com

(573) 388-3630

Pertinent address:

Arena Park, Cape Girardeau, Mo.

506 S. Kingshighway, Cape Girardeau, Mo.