Fran Eickhoff plaque being moved to Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q

A plaque commemorating longtime Route 66 business owner Fran Eickhoff is being moved from Fanning 66 Outpost to the Missouri Hick Bar-B-Q restaurant in Cuba, Missouri, after the former closed.

The plaque will be re-dedicated by the Route 66 Association of Missouri at 11 a.m. Saturday at the restaurant 913 E. Washington St. (aka Route 66; map here) as a part of the city’s Route 66 Cuba Fest. It sits just east of the Route 66 landmark Wagon Wheel Motel.

According to a news release from the association:

Fran was a charter member of the Route 66 Association of Missouri and served on the association’s board. A longtime Cuba resident, Fran ran The Route 66 Lounge for many years. She was widely known as booster for Cuba and Route 66. At the original dedication ceremony, Route 66 Association President Tommy Pike spoke of Fran’s love of Route 66 — how she promote Cuba’s Route 66 and encouraged all Cuba’s businesses to become members of the association. She also photographed all the Missouri Route 66 bridges and traveled the road extensively.

But Fran was probably best known as “Ms. Route 66”. She was widely known to meet with 66 travelers coming through Cuba on a moment’s notice. She made friends all over the world and is still remembered fondly by many of them today.

Eickhoff also donated much of her Route 66 memorabilia to the Crawford County Historical Museum.

Eickhoff died of lung cancer Aug. 7, 2008. When I wrote about her death, I brought up this memory of her earlier that year:

The last time we had a chance to visit with Fran was at the Route 66 festival this summer in Litchfield. She was wearing a bucket-style hat to cover up the hair loss that had come with her recent chemotherapy treatments. When I asked her to pose for the picture above, she gave me a grin, and with a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she took off her hat, revealing a mohawk hairdo. She told me it had been suggested that she ought to dye her hair black and paint a yellow stripe down the middle, in honor of her favorite road, and she joked that she was thinking about doing just that. I honestly wouldn’t have been surprised if she had. Nothing got the best of Fran — not even a scary disease.

Here’s what she looked like during that conversation — ailing, but as irrepressible as always:

Fanning 66 Outpost closed in August because of “economic conditions,” according to a statement on the business’ website. According to a Facebook post from last week, the business was auctioned off.

The store at the crossroads hamlet of Fanning, Missouri, west of Cuba, was best known for once having the World’s Largest Rocker.

It recently lost that title to another huge rocking chair built in Casey, Illinois, but Fanning 66 Outpost owner Dan Sanazaro said in the email the big chair — now known as the Route 66 Red Rocker — will stay on the property.

(Image of the Fran Eickhoff plaque from the 2009 ceremony by Jane Reed; image of Fran Eickhoff from the author’s collection)