OKIE FROM MUSKOGEE: Vanderford wanted to be in charge

Cathy Spaulding, Muskogee Phoenix, Okla.
6 min read

Feb. 10—Through years in the restaurant, retail and venue businesses, Sue Vanderford liked being "the meeter and greeter."

She found ways to do that as co-owner of Cowboys Bar-B-Q and Eight Ten Ranch & Cattle Co. event center. She still does it with her daughter at Pinon Creek Trading Co.

"I wanted to be the boss," Vanderford said. "I just always wanted to own my own business."

Vanderford and her husband, David, opened the restaurant in 1978 after buying a place on York Street called the Dairy Hut.

"My husband was a fireman in Tulsa, he went on vacation and we came down and bought the restaurant," she said. "He was on vacation for three more weeks after we bought the restaurant."

Vanderford recalled meeting guests while her husband cooked in back. They also did a brisk catering business, including many years for troops stationed at Camp Gruber.

"David would get down there at 2:30 a.m. and start breakfast," she said. "I'd get there at 4:30 or 5, We'd go out and feed breakfast. Then come back and do dinner."

She said the largest job was 2,500 troops on the ground for 30 days.

"We had them seven days a week before they deployed to Afghanistan," she said.

Vanderford recalled catering as many as 9,000 for a Westinghouse gathering near Tulsa. She recalled one catering job in Port Arthur, Texas.

While operating the restaurant, Vanderford took on work at Pinon Creek, then at Eight Ten Ranch.

The Vanderfords retired from restaurant work in September, 2021.

"We had buyers for restaurant, so we decided to retire," Sue Vanderford said. "We retired menus and the recipes."

They also sold the venue.

"When we sold the restaurant, we thought of maybe moving out of town, but we know everybody here, so why would we move," she said.

Instead, they built a new house south of Muskogee and recently celebrated their 50th anniversary. Sue Vanderford said they enjoy refurbishing old cars and currently have a 1964 Lincoln with suicide doors that open in the middle.

"We're ready to do some traveling, some fun stuff," she said.

Sacrifices made to please customers

Sue Vanderford recalls the challenges in the restaurant's early days.

"We had one employee," she said. "We worked open to close every day, and we did it for seven days a week. We were closed Christmas Day and Thanksgiving Day. Then we were able to expand and hire somebody else."

Many early customers came from a nearby racetrack.

"We would stay open until almost midnight on Friday nights because people would come after the races to eat," she said. "There was no place to go at that point that was open late."

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