Irascible, ambitious, and headstrong: that’s Juanita Musson. She made her way out of a hand-to-mouth Texas Panhandle childhood and carved a place in local culinary history by being who she was — without apology. If the dogs and goats tethered behind her restaurant made you uneasy, you could just take your business to some la-dee-da joint up the road, thank you very much. If you didn’t care for the verbal salt she used so liberally in her cooking, well, don’t let the door hit you in the tail on your way out. A local legend, Juanita Musson never cared much for what folks had to say.
Until recently, when they stood before microphones and a crowd of several hundred and said sweet things. That she was willing to hear. That she could agree to sit still for.
They said she’d feed anyone hungry enough to ask. They said she housed folks who were down on their luck. They said she put people before profits every time, and the love in Little Switzerland’s great room during the roast organized to celebrate the life and times of this legendary local were testament to the truth of that claim.
Tommy Smothers, Larry Clinton, Lumpy Williams and an extended cast of well-wishers gathered round Ms. Musson, now well into her 80s, to thank her for adding a bit of spice to their lives. They all remembered her as predictably unpredictable and unashamedly bold. In an era when women were still fighting for a foothold in the world of commerce, Juanita started and ran a series of successful restaurants, willing and able to go toe-to-toe with the boys. Let someone else suffer through white-gloved ladies luncheons; Juanita’ll take hers bawdy and a bit wild.