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Dinner at Miss Mary Bobo’s, just off the square in Lynchburg, is like dinner nowhere else. Sure, the food is delicious, but you get something special with your meal – a hostess. A real hostess who sits with the table through the meal. Your hostess, or now your host, flavors the meal with history and tales of Miss Mary’s, Jack Daniels, the Motlows, and the good old days in Lynchburg.

Things are done now pretty much as they were when Miss Mary ran the boarding house and restaurant. The tables are set with food served family style, and guests are not seated until the dinner bell rings, just as Miss Mary did it. That is when the dinner becomes special.

Diane Patterson has been a hostess there for eleven years, but has been around Lynchburg all her life. She remembers when Tom Motlow, one of the first officers of Farmers Bank, loaned her and her husband money to buy their farm. Tom lived at the boarding house. Diane knew Miss Mary and remembers that she helped countless people over the years, and feels strongly that she “is still with us” 

Mary Etta Ward has been a hostess for about a year. She says that she has heard Miss Mary described as “grace and grit.” Pointing out that she ran the boarding house, cared for the garden, cooked, cleaned, and handled the management of the business, she feels that was likely an apt description of the woman.

Dot Watson has been a hostess for fourteen years. She tells the story of Jack Daniels honoring Miss Mary on her 99^th birthday by putting a picture of her in a national ad that ran in 16 magazines. The ad tells of her birthday and invites people to send her a card. And they did. She received over 8,000 cards! Among them was one with a marriage proposal, and another with a pair of lacy red bikini panties in it. The post office had to hire two extra people to handle all the mail. Miss Mary was proud to tell folks that she was sure she was the oldest woman to ever appear in Playboy!

Miss Mary was instrumental in starting the “Miss Bobo Scholarship” for students from Motlow College through Tennessee Promise. Nine of these scholarships are awarded annually. Students awarded the scholarships work at the restaurant and help keep things running smoothly. They are assisted with learning financial literacy while working. The current head chef was the recipient of one of those scholarships.

The hostesses and host meet people from all walks of life, and from all over the globe. They see their share of celebrities, recently the likes of Luke Bryan, Shaboozey, Bill Dance, and various government officials have dined there. An original boarding house resident has returned for dinner. Couples have gotten engaged over dinner. There is a lady who comes to Miss Bobo’s every year for her birthday, and this year was her twenty fifth dinner at the restaurant. Diane once had a table with no one who spoke English. Fortunately, they had an interpreter.

In the breakroom at the restaurant the hostesses have a map of the United States. They color in every state from which a guest has come for dinner, and write in every foreign country. Most months see almost every state colored in and a list of eighteen to twenty five countries.

Though the restaurant was purchased by Jack Daniels after Miss Mary’s death, it is still her place and still run much as she ran it, and that is exactly what Jack Daniels wished when they bought it. So, Miss Mary’s legacy lives on. All three ladies agree that being a hostess there is a blessing. They are a part of “living history” in keeping the spirit of Miss Mary’s alive and well. If you have not been there, you should go. You get more than dinner there, you get a hostess or a host. And that is something special.