Sitting in the back seat of a woody station wagon in the 1970s, Stephanie Stuckey, the third of four children, knew that was her family's name up there on those roadside stores that popped up every 50 miles or so.
Or, more specifically, she knew it was the name of her grandfather, W.S. Stuckey, a Georgia businessman who started selling pecans from his Model A coupe in the depths of the Great Depression, and who, in 1937, opened his first roadside stand.
Before long, Stuckey had singlehandedly invented a staple of the American highway: the one-stop roadside destination, with a restaurant, gas station, candy store, and souvenir shop under one teal roof.
“Eat Here and Get Gas!” proclaimed a Stuckey's T-shirt from the 1960s, and millions of Americans did just that. By the 1960s, Stuckey's boasted 368 locations in more than 30 states. A 1976 Stuckey's ad
