Learn about the original Dairy Queen that was once here

By Charlie Hutson

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- Recently in a conversation at the Campbell County Airport, Airport Manager Bert Loupe told a story about growing up in Linden Park.  As Bert said, he and about 100 other kids lived in Linden Park at that time in the 1950’s.

During that time, one of the men who lived in Linden Park, Art Foster, would load the bed of his old pickup truck with kids and take them for ice cream at the Dairy Queen.

Suddenly my mind and mouth went whoa! Wait! Stop! What did you say? The Dairy Queen? Bert said “yep, the Dairy Queen.”

The next question is where was the DQ back then.  And Bert says, you remember the Tennessee Drive-In? Of course every kid who grew up in Lafollette in the 1960’s and 70’s knew where the Tennessee was.  Bert said that long before the Tennessee, it was a DQ, complete with Curly the Clown.

Well, later that day at the C-Hut mut hut, computer screens were glowing along with a iPad and old telephone books and old newspapers.

Found in an old Lafollette newspaper from 1952 was the grand opening of the Dairy Queen, just like Bert said complete with Curly the Clown. He was their mascot back then. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-04/03/2025-6AM)