By Ron Wilson, director of the Huck Boyd National Institute for Rural Development at Kansas State University
Let’s go to the Global Entrepreneurship Congress. Thousands of people from 200 countries will gather at this event. Among those attending is a woman representing an award-winning truck stop and restaurant in rural Kansas.
Bud Erskin is the owner of Majestic Service Truck Stop and Restaurant in St. Francis. His daughter, Kary Meyer, represented the business at the Global Entrepreneurship Congress.
When Erskin got out of school in Colorado, he purchased a local Sinclair station. (That tells you this didn’t happen just yesterday.)
He later moved to St. Francis where he bought another business and did mechanic work. In 1986, he bought a gas station in a building with a big sign saying “Majestic” on the front. Erskin decided to keep the name.
“We started with a cigar box and not enough money to make change for a $20 bill,” Erskin said. “When my first customer came in, he had to wait until the next customer showed up so I could make change.”
Erskin operated it as a gas station with a mechanic shop in the back. “We sold some candy bars and a few cans of pop,” Meyer said.
Erskin sold the business and, years later, bought it back. Unfortunately, the building had been trashed.
“The plumbing, wiring, tanks and windows had all been ruined,” Erskin said. “We basically had to start from scratch.”
He remodeled, reinstalled fuel pumps, added a kitchen, and re-opened.
Bud’s wife, Lounie, does the books for the business. Their daughter, Kary, married Troy Meyer. Kary was lab director at the local hospital before she joined the business. She and Troy have two children.
Majestic Service Truck Stop and Restaurant continues to be an independent, family-owned business. In addition to fuel, it offers convenience store items, pizza, sub sandwiches, and a full-service, sit down restaurant with a full breakfast daily.
“We just listened to the wants and needs of the community and tried to respond,” Meyer said. Farmers stopped in and wanted a place to get breakfast. The store started offering biscuits and gravy and the menu grew from there.
“We’re always trying something new,” Erskin said. Their breakfast burritos have become a huge favorite. “We’ll make 20,000 burritos in a year, and there are people shipping them across the country.”
“We offer good homemade food, and everything is made from scratch.”
They added tables and chairs as a place for the community to congregate. “In our heart and soul, we wanted a place where everybody can come together,” Meyer said. “We now have clubs, prayer groups, student groups and others that meet here.”
“Unlike most convenience stores, most of our employees have been with us for a long time,” Meyer said. “They’re more like family.”
Erskin added: “One of my biggest thrills is to see the growth of our youngest employees. Ninety-five percent of them come back and thank us.”
Erskin is active in the National Association of Convenience Stores and makes trips to Washington DC to contact legislators.
In 2022, Erskin received a call saying that Majestic Service Truck Stop and Restaurant had earned the Kansas Department of Commerce’s To The Stars award in retail business.
“I thought it was a scam,” Meyer said. “A half-hour later, they called to say we had won the Service award too.”
Awards were presented in October 2022.
Meyer learned about the Global Entrepreneurship Congress to be held in Indianapolis in 2025. She expressed interest and was selected by the Kansas Department of Commerce to represent Kansas. All this is impressive for a business in the rural community of St. Francis, population 1,276 people. Now, that’s rural.
“We’re so grateful for the community support,” Meyer said.
For more information, search for Majestic Service Truck Stop and Restaurant on Facebook.
It’s time to leave the Global Entrepreneurship Congress where Kansas is represented by a self-described Mom and Pop business in rural Kansas. We commend Bud and Lounie Erskin, Kary Meyer and all those who are making a difference through the Majestic Service Truck Stop and Restaurant.
Their record of service is majestic.
Audio and text files of Kansas Profiles are available at https://www.huckboydinstitute.org/kansas-profiles. For more information about the Huck Boyd Institute, interested persons can visit http://www.huckboydinstitute.org.
