Mary Ann Lee, co-founder of the Big Texan Steak Ranch with her husband Bob Lee, died Friday in Amarillo at age 86, according to the Amarillo Globe-News.
Lee and her husband started the Big Texan along Route 66 in Amarillo in 1963. The restaurant moved to Interstate 40 for survival’s sake during the 1970s, although the Big Texan remains a strong supporter of the Mother Road.
The Big Texan was among the first restaurants in the Texas Panhandle to provide a Wild West atmosphere. Patrons told Bob Lee they wanted to see cowboys and other Western sights. So servers dressed in Western attire. Ten-gallon hat-wearing musicians serenaded diners with guitars and fiddles. Real-life cowboys doing business at Amarillo’s stockyards were welcomed at the restaurant with “two-bit beer” to provide more ambiance.
But the gimmick the Big Texan is most famous for is its free 72-ounce steak dinner if you eat it all in an hour. Many have attempted it; few have succeeded. The 72-ounce challenge is known worldwide, and continues to bring the curious to the Big Texan’s front doors.
For more about the Big Texan’s history, get the excellent “Story of the Free 72-Oz. Steak” book the next time you’re there.
Bob Lee died of a heart attack in 1990, but many of his children are carrying on the operation of the restaurant.
Mary Ann Lee earned a master’s degree in physiatric nursing, and taught nursing at nursing at West Texas A&M University and Amarillo College.
Rosary will be said at 7 p.m. Monday at Griggs-Schooler-Gordon Pioneer Chapel (map here). Here is the funeral chapel’s online memorial page to her.
A funeral Mass will be at 10 a.m. Tuesday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church (map here). Burial will be in Memorial Park Cemetery, which is just west of the Big Texan.