Branson/Tri-Lakes News: Entertainer adds restaurateur title

Entertainer Penny Gilley grew up in Louisiana and moved to Branson a year ago to headline RFD-TV The Theatre. This month, she opened Louisiana Fixin's on State Highway 76, across from Walmart.

"I love Branson, and I'm planning to stay here, so this is my way to bring a little bit of Louisiana to Branson," said Gilley, who is Mickey Gilley's second cousin by marriage. Penny Gilley grew up cooking, so she's combined recipes with Brandy Roberts, a Louisiana chef who's also her keyboard player.

The menu includes a bowl of seafood gumbo for $4.99. She sampled 30 kinds of bread before she found the right one for her Po' Boy sandwiches. And she did a survey of other Louisiana food in the Branson area. Not much, she said. She also sells Abita beer and root beer, brewed with Louisiana sugar cane in Abita Springs, La.

Gilley said she's working on next year's show. In the meantime, The Penny Gilley TV Show airs on RFD-TV Fridays at noon and 10 p.m. The restaurant is open 11 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday and 11 a.m.-8 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, call (417) 334-8626 or visit www.pennygilley.com.

Good causes, good stories

Recently, two women made substantial donations to good causes in Taney County, and each has an interesting background.

The Tupperware Treatment: Evelyn Lasiter donated $100,000 to Skaggs Community Health Center's foundation to benefit the Chemotherapy and Infusion Treatment Center. She also donated $100,000 after the treatment center opened last year.

Lasiter and her husband, Alfred, volunteered at Skaggs until he died last spring just short of the couple's 63rd anniversary. The couple ran a successful Tupperware business they brought to their Branson summer home from Hawaii in 1997. When they sold the Tupperware business, they had 50 managers and 450 consultants.

Evelyn Lasiter said her husband never expected that productivity out of her, and she fondly recalls the story: Evelyn Lasiter said they were married when she was 20, and after Alfred was shipped off with the Navy, she wanted to get a job.

He said no because they had three small children.

"He said, 'Oh honey, you couldn't sell a toothpick,'" she recalled. Evelyn paid no attention, and attended a Tupperware party. She was good at sales and secretly opened her own bank account. By the time he returned home, she'd made $6,000.

"He never asked me to quit," she said. "It was a beautiful business. I remember the Depression in the '30s. We were OK, but others around us weren't."

Ninety-three year old Nora Slusher donated $50,000 from the Roy W. Slusher Foundation, split between four agencies: Church Army and Salvation Army in Branson, Christian Associates of Table Rock Lake in Stone County and the Bradleyville School Foundation.

Her husband, Roy Slusher, made his fortune in Denver real estate. He and his first wife lived in Forsyth in the 1960s. After she died, Slusher returned to Denver where he had been acquainted with a young bookkeeper named Nora. She had never married and was in her 50s. Roy found her, they married and returned to Forsyth where Nora still lives.

Bradleyville Superintendent Joe Combs said Nora has been a great benefactor to the schools. She's purchased shoes and coats for the kids, he said.

"Sometimes, she'll come up to visit and have lunch," Combs said. "The kids come up to her and hug her, and say thank you for the shoes."

All kinds of ways

There are a lot of creative ways to attract people to a business. Asking them to jump in the lake, however, isn't the first that comes to mind - especially not when waters are frigid.

Yet, that's what owners of Still Waters Condominium Resort have done the past four years at Indian Point on Table Rock Lake.

The tradition continues this year, with the Feb. 14 Polar Bear Plunge, a fundraiser for Special Olympics Missouri. Participants jump, dive or sometimes crawl into the lake, which is usually has a temperature of about 40 degrees this time of year. Plungers are asked to raise a minimum of $50.

The Battaglia family that owns the resort began hosting the plunge to help bring more people to the Indian Point community during February, typically a slow month, Bryan Battaglia said. Last year, 96 plungers and many spectators attended.

Cy Bortner of Herschend Family Entertainment will plunge for his fourth time.

"It's definitely an adventure and a lot of fun for a great reason," he said.

To sign up, visit www.stillwatersresort.com. Registration begins at noon.

Kathryn Buckstaff, membership public relations manager of Branson/Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, can be reached at kbuckstaff@bransoncvb.com.

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