Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores Celebrates 60 Years In Business

Love's Travel Stops and Country Stores started 60 years ago in Watonga, Oklahoma, and has now grown to be a household name all over the country.

Love's now has more than 630 truck stops in 42 states with no plans of slowing down.

Chief culture officer and executive vice president Jenny Love Meyer, daughter of founders Tom and Judy Love, came to the Coca-Cola Southwest Beverages Porch to discuss Love's past 60 years and the next 60 years.

Meyer said it is amazing to compare the company's start to its current state.

"It's really amazing really looking back on where we started and where we are now and in looking at the organization of about 40,000 team members across the nation. It really is it really it's amazing and and really thrilling to know

She shared that in 1964, her dad needed a way to support his family and decided to lease an abandoned filling station.

"He was able to go in and lease that filling station and then just keep on doing that through the decade, and at the end of the decade, had 40 locations," Meyer said.

Through the years, the company has remained very involved in the Oklahoma City community.

Meyer said that, given her family's success, they feel it is their responsibility to give back.

"Oklahoma City's our home, and so, we're fortunate that we can, and so we should be able to give and help the community be better," Meyer said.

Most recently, Love's donated millions of dollars for a new softball stadium in Norman for the University of Oklahoma team.

Coach Patty Gasso was emotional at the field's dedication and said it had been decades in the making.

"We've had a lot of coaches come in and out. I've watched my sons coach here. So, 30 years, it's time to move into a mansion," Gasso said.

Meyer said it was important to them to partner with the program because of how Gasso runs it.

"When I met the team and met coach Gasso, it was just so, pardon the pun, striking the similarities with her team and how we run our business," Meyer said. "One thing that happened after another that became something that really bigger than ourselves that we could help spur on."

Meyer said the company is grateful to Oklahomans for their support over the last 60 years that allows them to make such large contributions to the community.

"We're happy that we're in our 60th anniversary and really being able to do what we do is attributed to our team members, but also our loyal customers that come in every single day," Meyer said. "Just thrilled to be able to serve them and thrilled that we're able to have that relationship with our customers."