Lubeley's Bakery Edward Arthur Lubeley was born on February 25, 1913 in Valley Park in St. Louis County. His father worked as a bookkeeper for the Hellrung & Grimm Furniture Company. Lubeley aspired to be a doctor, but due to the Great Depression, took a job as a baker. By 1937, he was working as a baker and decorator at A. E. Obermeyer's Kirkwood Bakery at 113 North Kirkwood Road. Helen Mary Maret was born on December 17, 1912 in St. Louis. Her brother, William Maret, ran a small filling station on Denny Road, which would grow to become The House of Maret restaurant. By 1937, Helen Maret was working the front counter at A. E. Obermeyer's Kirkwood Bakery.
Edward Arthur Lubeley and Helen Mary Maret were
married on October 10, 1937. Family lore holds that the day the
couple was married, A. E. Obermeyer docked their pay.
In 1937, as the country was in the midst of a recession, Edward Lubeley heard he was going to be laid off. He old his wife, "We're going to start a bakery." They purchased an existing bakery at 5005 South Kingshighway, just south of Neosho, and opened Lubeley Bakery. A photograph of Lubeley Bakery taken on November 20, 1940 shows a display window with turkeys, baskets of apples, and coconut apple pies. A sign in the window features a large turkey and offers "Thanksgiving Greetings." Two smaller signs read:
A photograph taken inside of the bakery on the same date demonstrates employees and customers around the sales counter. Trays and displays of baked goods are visible. A sign advertising the coconut apple pie is propped up on a display case. A second sign reads:
In 1945, the Lubeleys moved their bakery to 2716 Sutton in Maplewood, renaming it the Sutton Bakery. It was still there in 1954.
On November 9, 1950, the Lubeleys opened a second bakery at 8071 Watson Road in Webster Groves, in the new Yorkshire Village shopping center.
Edward and Helen Lubeley had four children –
Edward, Helen, Robert and Susan. The bakery was a family affair,
with everyone pitching in to help. The kids folded cake boxes and
pastry boxes when they were young. When they were older, Robert
swept up and helped his father with chores, while Helen and Susan
worked the counter after school.
In 1980, Robert (Bob) Lubeley and his sister
Helen Lubeley Murray took over the bakery from their parents. Two
years later, they moved the bakery to a free-standing building at
7815 Watson Road in Shrewsbury.
To attract business to the new location, the Lubeleys added a deli, offering sandwiches and salads, plus a small dining area where customers could eat lunch or dunk donuts into their morning coffee.
"It was rough at first, moving and losing
traffic," Bob Lubeley explained. "We were by ourselves and we needed
a deli to bring people in."
Lubeley’s was known for its variety of
German-style cakes, danishes, stollens and breads, as well as
wedding cakes, themed cookies and doughnuts. Popular items included
their
Macaroon Fruit Cups and
Florentine Lace Cookies.
One of the first things people noticed when they walked into Lubeley's was a big display of birthday candles; the top row was all black candles.
"We do a lot of coffin cakes," said Bob
Lubeley. "They are for 30th and 40th birthdays, for those that are
over the hill. The cakes have black frosting and a little person in
the coffin."
Custom-made decorated cakes for all occasions were half of the bakery's business. Their more spectacular cakes included a replica of Bagnell Dam at Lake of the Ozarks for Union Electric Co., a huge Coca-Cola can for Six Flags and a boa constrictor for Zoo Director Charles H. Hoessle. Wedding cakes were also a big seller.
"We do about 10 to 15 a week, Lubeley noted.
"We do two-tier to five-tier normally; those will feed from 30
people to 400 people. The five-tier tends to be the biggest people
will get."
Edward Arthur Lubeley, died in 1992. His wife Helen continued to work behind the counter in the bakery. She joked that her children couldn't fire her because she worked for free. Helen Lubeley’s love of the customers brought her into the bakery most days it was open, even into her late 90s, icing cakes or ringing up patrons, sometimes mistakenly at 1940s prices. She said, "If I miss a day, there'll be a whole group in the next day asking, 'Helen, what happened to you?'"
Helen Lubeley died on June 7, 2014 at the age
of 101.
On September 19, 2017, Lubeley's announced on their Facebook page that after 80 years of business they would be closing on September 30.
Customers lined up before sunrise at the bakery
in the days that followed for one last chance to buy their favorite
strudels and stollens and splitlayer cakes.
"Well, it’s just time to hang it up,’" said Bob Lubeley. "We’ve been doing this all our lives. And we’re all starting to have a few health issues." "It’s a very demanding business," explained Helen Lubeley Murray. "The holidays are just getting harder and harder, and we just looked at each other and said how long can we do this? We’re the second generation, and we don’t have a third generation to take it over, which is not uncommon in mom-and-pop businesses."
The bakery, which was normally open until 5
p.m., sold out of everything by 11 a.m. There wasn't a doughnut or a
Danish or anything left.
Copyright © 2021 LostTables.com |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
