Posted on 05/19/2005 1:02:25 PM PDT by Extremely Extreme Extremist
OKLAHOMA CITY -- Donald Dean Coit, the founder of Coit's Root-Beer Stands, has died. He was 79.
Coit battled a lengthy illness and had been hospitalized for three weeks when he died Tuesday, his granddaughter Karen Coit said.
Coit opened his first drive-in restaurant, Weber's, in 1954, in Oklahoma City. The exclusively curb-service establishment opened in an era when dragging the strip in a Model-T was the ultimate weekend activity.
Coit changed the name of the drive-in to Coit's Root-Beer Drive In and added two similar stores in the city.
Oklahoma City resident Steve Hallmark said he knew Coit for 45 years, starting when he sold Coit advertising as a sales representative for KTOK radio station.
"He started that place as one of the first drive-ins in the city. It became an institution. He used to go down there and work in the kitchen. It was his pride and joy. He had the best hot dogs in the city, bar none," Hallmark said.
Coit's daughter, Cosette Coit-Pruitt, said she wasn't really sure what got him into the restaurant business, but remembered her mother and father bought what used to be a used car lot. They started out with a one-room building, converting it into a drive-in.
Coit's son, Bill Coit, now is the general manager of the restaurants, but Coit-Pruitt said she wasn't sure what would happen to the chain now that her father has died.
Donald Coit was born November 28, 1925.
A 1943 graduate of Classen High, he served in the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II.
Coit is survived by his wife, Ann, of 58 years; son Bill; daughters D' Anne Coit and Cosette Coit-Pruitt; nine grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.
A memorial service is scheduled for 11 a.m. Saturday at St. Luke's United Methodist Church. Family will receive friends from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday at Vondel Smith Mortuary North.
That's too bad. The root beer is great.
ate at the one on Penn. Even bought a few xmas trees there.
RIP, Mr. Coit.
Is his store nationwide or was it locally to OKC?
I used to eat at the one on Penn too. I didnt know that Weber's was the same as Coit's. I'll have to go check out the Webers up here in Tulsa.
I only know of the one in OKC, but I guess it must have been bigger if it merited an AP story.
Coit's Interruptus?
(Sorry. RIP Mr. Coit. Sounded like a good guy.)
People still drove Model Ts in 1954?
They stopped making them in 1928 and they stopped making any parts compatible with the Model T in 1941.
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