30-year waitress hangs up her apron

Audrey Wagner figured she’d share some laughs, memories and more than a few tears with her customers Monday.
She was right.
“It’s been very emotional,” she said, midway through her final shift. “I’ve been crying off and on most of the day.”
Wagner, a waitress at B&B Country Cafe, ended her 30-year career Monday.
Now that her home on North Jefferson Avenue has sold, Wagner, 75, is free to spend more time with family. She has daughters living in Independence and Las Vegas.
“I’ll live back and forth between the two of them,” she said. “Now, I can visit family. I can see my sister in Topeka, and come back and visit my brother in Moran.
“And then I’ll have to come back and visit here,” Wagner laughed. “They’d never forgive me if I didn’t do that.”
Waitressing wasn’t in the cards until Wagner had reached her 40s.
Up until then, she’d focused on farming, and figured that’s where she’d remain.
Divorce changed that.
At 45, and needing to make ends meet, Wagner took a job at Gene’s Cafe in Bronson.
She held that job briefly until moving to Iola, where she worked at Perry’s Restaurant in downtown Iola for four years, and the Downtowner Cafe for three others.
Two of those years were spent working at both restaurants.
“I’d get up and be at work at 5,” she recalled. “I’d get off at 1, then go over to the other one and clock in at 2, and work until 11.
“I’m not going to miss that part,” she laughed.
The long hours were a necessity because of tight budgets. Even when Wagner started receiving Social Security benefits, she knew she’d have to continue working.
Much of her career was spent waiting tables at the Greenery — 21 years in all.
But when the Greenery closed down briefly, Wagner found herself in search of another job.
She found one next door at B&B, where owner Kim Larios was a former co-worker of Wagner’s at the Greenery.
“I asked her if I could work for her, and she said yes,” Wagner recalled. “I started here the next day.”
“Getting the house sold, that’s how I’m able to retire,” she said. “It was a very hard decision. When I signed the papers to sell it, I just sat there and cried.”
Wagner’s house sold Nov. 24, although she notified her coworkers of her pending retirement months in advance. She told the Larioses— Kim owns B&B with husband Mike — she could work until the end of the November.
“Now it’s time for her to relax and let somebody else take care of her,” Kim Larios said. “She’s been taking care of everybody all of her life.”
“She’s been a big part of our family,” Mike Larios agreed. “We knew when she started here that we had something special. We wouldn’t trade it for the world. She’s been a delight.”
Wagner’s rapport with her customers — many get a hug before they walk out the door — added to the family atmosphere.
“I enjoy people,” she admits. “Many customers are parents now. There are hunters who come back to town, and I get to see them. We’ve had good times.”
Wagner has a long rapport with her coworkers as well.
Fellow waitress Diana Spear has worked alongside Wagner for more than 25 years. “In fact, I trained her,” Wagner recalled. “Kim, Diana and I all worked together at the Greenery. They’re my family, too.”
She frequents area dances. Odds are you’ll see Wagner on the dance floor at Independence’s twice-monthly dances. “I’ll go to Altoona,” she added. “Lots of times I’ll go to Yates Center. I’ll even go to Chanute.”
Wagner also is an avid card player — pinochle and pitch, especially — and up to now, she’s collected cats.
Not the real ones, mind you, but porcelain figurines — more than 3,000.
“I’ve given a lot of them away to my coworkers,” she said. “I’ll take some with me.”
A blue and white cat figurine will be displayed in the serving window at B&B. “That gives them something to remember me by.”