Ma Brown's Q-S Lunch

Many people may have memories of Ma Brown's, a little sandwich-and-beer shop on the courthouse square.  Buddy Baker certainly does.  He spent a lot of time there when he got back from following the pipeline that was being built across the nation just after World War Two.

(Warnick Dodge stood to the east of Brown's and Harmon Motors was to the west.)

He had made friends with another pipeliner from Warrensburg, Billy Brown, who was the son of Laura "Ma" Brown and her husband Hick.  Hick was a trucker who hauled cattle from this area to the Kansas City Stockyards leaving Brown's Q-S Lunch for his wife to run.

When the two young men got back to Warrensburg, Buddy joined the 52-20 club. (The government gave World War Two vets a 52-week pension of $20 a week allowing them to take a year off to recover from the trama of war.)  Buddy and Billy spent their free time at the restaurant.

Buddy remembers it as a friendly place where college students and factory workers congregated for lunch. Some people came in to wait for the bus that ran several times a day between Warrensburg and Whiteman Army Airfield until the airbase was demobilized.  There were booths and a Seeburg Jukebox.  A yellow cat named Seeburg greeted the customers.

The Brown family even introduced Buddy to another regular custormer, Francis Walz, who would later become his wife of 50 years.

Ma Brown's is now Old Barney's on the Courthouse Square. Notice that the top of the facade has been removed so that it is now lower than the building to the right of it.

Does anyone else have any memories of Ma Brown's Q-S Lunch?  If you do, we'd love to hear them.