The Mount Ayr Record-News
date of publication missing from clipping

Announcement of the opening of a bank office and a tire dealership and service station, along with the construction of the Munyon Mini-Mart and new ownership of the cafe in Kellerton have meant a number of changes in downtown there.

Formal announcement was made Monday that the Lamoni National Bank will open a Kellerton Office Thursday, Aug. 16.

Also set to open this week is Carr Motors, Inc., a tire dealership and service station in the former Kellerton Oil building. This will be another location for the Allendale, Mo. tire dealer.

In addition Chet and Norma MUNYON have built a new mini-mart and gas station building in town and Darwin NOREM is the new owner of the Ranch Wagon Cafe in Kellerton.

In making the announcement, Lamoni National Bank president Jim SCHIPPER said that the new office will allow the bank to provide expanded service to the areas of western Decatur and eastern Ringgold counties. "It has been some time since Kellerton has had a local banking facility, and we hope to provide the much-needed service."

The new office will be located in the building formerly housing the laudromat (one block west of the post office).

Heading up the Kellerton office will be Lamoni National Bank vice president Bud TICE. Donna PAYTON has been named office manager.

Acting as an advisory board for the new office will be Chet MUNYON, Perry WOOLLUMS, Leroy TRIMBLE, Glen PAYTON and Bob BOLES.

Earlier plans were for the bank to open October 1, after the bank received approval for a branch facility in Kellerton recently. The office will now open before remodeling of the former laundromat gets underway.

Carr Motors, Inc. of Allendale, Mo. will be opening an Iowa outlet in the former Kellerton Oil Co. building in Kellerton as soon as some equipment is received. Bill and Andy DANIELS and their children, Billy, 4, and Sarah, 2, will be moving to Kellerton to manage the service station and tire sales outlet.

All types of tires including farm equipment and truck tires will be handled at the Kellerton location. Plans call for adding chain saws and mowers later.

Berkely CARR and son, Lance, will be helping with the operation in its early phases.

If you've driven through Kellerton lately, you may have noticed the new building on main street towards the south edge of town. This new building belongs to Chet and Norma MUNYON of Kellerton and presently houses their new mini-mart/gas station and car wash business and will soon house the hardware/plumbing and heating business (Kellerton Hardware) that they've owned and operated since 1961.

The Munyons have been pumping gas at their new facility since June 23 and began selling groceries July 5. Says Norma, "We hope to have the hardware and plumbing and heating business moved down here in about two weeks, but we've had a steady door trade and we're open 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day, including Sundays and holidays. There's not a lot of time after that to move things."

The mini-mart is located in the northwest quarter of the MUNYON's new metal building and on the north outside wall is an open air car wash. The back east half of the building will be a shop eara with sheet metal equipment and other plumbing tools. When the Kellerton Hardward business has been moved into the southeast quarter of the building, it will be called Munyon's Plumbing and Heating.

After the moving process is complete, the MUNYONS plan to have a grand opening. But, Norma reports, a date for the grand opening has not been set.

Chet and Norma decided to build the new building because "the town needed groceries; we already had the lot; the Kellerton Hardware building needed repairs and we couldn't have done the same thing there."

Helping run the business are the MUNYON'S two sons, Terry and Rod, who are both married with two children.

Describing their operation, Norma says, "This is kind of a family affair."

Since Monday, August 6, "Red" and "Rex" NOREM, alias Darwin and Terri, have been operating "Red's Ranch Wagon", a cafe located on the main street of Kellerton where the coffee shop used to be.

The MOREMS leased the building from Marion STARK and opened the new cafe after cleaning up and doing some remodeling.

"Red's" is open at 6 a.m. Monday through Saturday, serving freshly made doughnuts. They stay open till 6 p.m. Monday through Thursday, featuring noon specials and till 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday, featuring noon specials and supper specials.

NOTE: The date and source of the above newspaper clipping had been cut off. It is believed that the article came from The Mount Ayr Record-News from either the late 1980's or early 1990's.

Transcription & submission by Sharon R. Becker, 2007

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