Angie King couldn’t help but feel a sense of nostalgia.
King, then Angie Barnett, worked at Iola’s Dairy Queen franchise 30 years ago while a high-schooler.
“After 30 years, it’s crazy how much this place has not really changed,” King said with a chuckle Wednesday afternoon.
King and husband Buddy are the new owners of the treat shop, formally taking over from Jim and Laura Baker on July 1.
Mandy Boeken, Angie King’s younger sister, will serve as general manager.
“We’re excited,” King said. “This is our hometown. It gives us an excuse to come back home more often.”
The Iola store is the third Dairy Queen franchise for the Kings, who operate two others in Missouri. They live in Farmington, Mo., about an hour’s drive south of St. Louis.
“We’d seen it had been up for sale, and since we were from Iola originally, there was interest, but we needed to find someone locally who could run it,” she explained.
That changed when Boeken stepped forward to join the family business.
Boeken underwent extensive training on all things ice creamy before working two weeks at a Dairy Queen in Colorado.
“She’ll be the one running this,” King said.
Among the most notable changes since the Kings and Boeken came on board was the removal of the metal carport that had been set up for customers to place orders at the store’s side window.
“We put everybody back inside the store,” King said. “It’s much easier to ring people up and to talk to customers instead of talking to everyone through the window.”
Window service will remain for ball teams or other large groups who cannot easily fit inside at one time.
“Otherwise, we’d like to see everybody come inside,” King said.
THE IOLA Dairy Queen will remain classified as a “treat store,” with a vast array of soft-serve ice cream delicacies, rather than a full Brazier, which offers fast food items like hamburgers, etc.
