The founder of the truck stop chain known for its red and yellow heart logo, “Clean Places, Friendly Faces” motto, and in-store showers has passed away, according to Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores. Tom Love passed away in Oklahoma City on Tuesday, according to the company’s website announcement. He was 85. No specific reason of death was given.
What Happened To Travel Stops?
“We are deeply saddened by the passing of our beloved husband, father and grandfather,” family members said in the statement. “Although the loss we feel is immeasurable, we celebrate his life and will uphold his legacy of leading a life characterized by honesty, faith, and integrity.”
According to the statement, Love and his wife Judy founded Musket Corporation in 1964, which later became Love’s Travel Stops and Country Stores. For $5,000, they leased a deserted gas station in Watonga, which is about 50 miles northwest of Oklahoma City.
Travel Stops Net Worth
Love’s President Shane Wharton said in a statement that “in many ways, he was an ordinary person who built an extraordinary business alongside his wife Judy and his family, who he loved deeply.
Love’s, which Forbes estimates will be valued $9.7 billion in 2022, is still family-owned. With more than 39,000 workers, it currently runs 600 travel stops, mostly along interstate highways, across 42 states.
Early Life
In 1972, Love opened what the company claimed was the first combination grocery-convenience store with a self-service gas station in Guymon, Oklahoma, in the Oklahoma Panhandle. Love pioneered a concept that combined grocery and convenience stores with fuel stops. In 1981, Love’s opened its first rest area on Interstate 40 in Amarillo, Texas, to serve professional truck drivers and other motorists who wanted to travel across the nation quickly and easily.
Love’s has increased the availability of these services by adding in-store showers, truck maintenance, and roadside assistance for semi-trucks. The business’s logo, a multicolored, multilayered heart with a red heart that appears to be moving in the direction of the viewer, is displayed on the store’s signs along highways, on the jerseys of the NBA team Oklahoma City Thunder, and on NASCAR cars.