When Lillian Regelsperger’s grandchildren tried to put together a tribute to her, they had trouble keeping on track.
“My two daughters and son wrote her eulogy,” said her daughter, Linda Crow of Valles Mines. “They tried to cover all areas of her life. But they laughed so much while they were working on it, because they’d have to stop and tell stories about her at every stage.”
Mrs. Regelsperger died Feb. 13 at age 86, following a stroke. She had been the owner/operator of the Country Inn Restaurant in Imperial.
Mrs. Regelsperger grew up in the Perryville area, one of six children.
“They were simple people,” Linda said. “Mom was a real tomboy. She loved tagging along with her dad when he went hunting for squirrel, rabbit or coon. Her dad had a farm implement shop there in Perryville, and Mom just loved to get in there and get her hands all greasy working on machinery.
“She liked helping her mom, also, working in the garden. Mom would tell me stories about being in the garden with her mother, and how they would just find things to laugh about.”
Mrs. Regelsperger, who graduated from the eighth grade at St. Joseph Parish in Apple Creek, enjoyed her teen years.
“She and her sisters and their friends would go dancing at Mike’s Tavern in Uniontown, south of Perryville, from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. on a Sunday,” Linda said. “Mom loved to dance.”
She met Wilfred “Wimpy” Regelsperger when he was a customer at her father’s shop.
“My dad was a widower and was, like, six years older than her,” Linda said. “They got married when she was 17.”
The couple lived on a farm near Perryville, where they grew crops, kept dairy cattle and had eight children in 14 years.
“Mom was never afraid of work,” her daughter said. “She liked to do home-canning, and she made quilts by the hundreds.”
The family moved to Imperial when Wimpy took a job as an over-the-road trucker, and Lillian decided to open a restaurant.
“She was about 38 or 39 when she tackled the restaurant business,” Linda said of her mother, who had no formal training or business experience. “Mom always was in the cooking field. She worked at the restaurant at Famous-Barr, she cooked at Liguori for the Redemptorist priests, she ran the deli at Cook’s Market in north Imperial.
“She just went ahead and figured out how to run a restaurant. She never was afraid to jump into something new.”
All the kids helped out in the restaurant, which was on the corner of Hwy. 61-67 and Imperial Main Street.
“We would have people lined up out the door. The whole town supported that restaurant,” Linda said. “We had people from all over come on the weekends for her family-style dinners.
“We had so much fun! Before we opened on Sunday mornings, we’d get our prep done and have enough time that we’d put some money in the jukebox and she’d teach me to dance – old Texas swing, some polka. It was a good atmosphere.”
Health concerns forced Mrs. Regelesperger to sell the restaurant after about five years, but she stayed busy with other activities.
“She was very active in church at St. Joseph, and later at Our Lady (Church in Festus),” Linda said. “She was a very devout Catholic.”
Her family knew they could rely on her in all kinds of ways.
“She was physically so strong,” Linda said. “When he was about 15, my son killed a deer, and he went and got Mom to go out in the woods with him. She coached him on how to gut it, then helped him haul it back to the truck.”
Perhaps because the Regelspergers spent so much time apart when Wimpy was on the road, the couple spent their later years staying close to each other.
“He’d call her his sweetie, his chickadee,” their daughter recalled. “They always had their arms around each other. They’d sit on the front porch together, holding hands.”
The couple enjoyed playing cards with friends and holding impromptu yard parties to showcase the results of their successful fishing trips.
“They went fishing a lot once Dad retired (in 1990),” Linda said. “They would have these big fish fries and invite so many people. They put in a big garden and raised all kinds of food – then gave most of it away. And they cut so much firewood! They just always had to have things to do.”
In everything she did, Mrs. Regelsperger’s sense of humor peeked through.
“She was so funny,” her daughter said. “She’d pick up a piece of wood and say, ‘Hmm. That looks like a chuck roast.’
“She always cared about her appearance. I’d roll her hair, and people would say, ‘Oh, you look so nice today!’ Mom would say ‘What?’
“Now, she had bionic hearing. She could hear you whisper from the other room. She just said that because she wanted to hear the compliment again.”
Mrs. Regelsperger had a number of health issues over the years, but was basically in good shape up until Feb. 10.
“It was after supper, and she was sitting in her chair when she sneezed, and that was it. She had a massive stroke,” Linda said. “It was just her time.”
Linda said her mother will be remembered for her sweet nature.
“She had a smile and a kind word for everyone,” Linda said. “That’s the first thing people tell me. ‘Oh, your mom always had a smile on her face.’
“She was just fun.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.