Parental Advisory

2026 is a year of important anniversaries across the United States: the 250th year of the Declaration of Independence, the Centennial of Route 66, and the twenty-sixth anniversary of the passing of Lucille Hamons, the “Mother of the Mother Road.”

Lucille was the third owner of the Provine Service Station off Route 66 in Hydro, known simply and more commonly as Lucille’s. Her signature hospitality and ice-cold beer made it a destination for many travelers and tourists. Route 66 was the first highway to run halfway across the continent—from Los Angeles to Chicago—and travelers from around the world still stop right in the middle for a photo opportunity at Lucille’s Service Station.

Thanks to its current owner, ASAP Energy President Rick Koch, Lucille’s brand has expanded to include two restaurants (one in Weatherford four miles from the station, and one in Clinton near the Oklahoma Route 66 Museum), and Lucille’s Hotel. Koch bought the original service station from one of Lucille’s daughters after her passing.

“Route 66 is part of America’s development over the years that is really special,” Koch says. “Only in America could it have happened.”

Lucille Hamons and her husband Carl lived with their three kids above the service station. Jim Argo/Oklahoma Historical Society

For Koch, owning the piece of history is personal. He knew Lucille as a teenager in the 1970s, when he bought gas at the service station once he got his license. The historical ingenuity of Route 66 captures his imagination, a major marker of progress and accomplishment for America. Koch also loved Lucille’s hospitality and wanted to preserve her legacy as a Route 66 icon. Those things combined to make Lucille’s Service Station a piece of Americana that has attracted visitors from every state as well as Germany, Norway, and France—among other countries—for decades.

The service station was built in the late 1920s, and W.O. Waldrop bought and renamed it the Provine Station in 1934. He added a small motor court of five rooms for overnight guests and sold the entire business to Lucille and her husband Carl Hamons in 1941. At the drive-through two-story service station, Lucille and Carl lived and raised their three children in the apartment above the pumps and convenience store.

Shortly after the couple bought the service station, the United States entered World War II. Car manufacturing stopped, and Lucille spent her days helping stranded motorists. Lucille even bought travelers’ broken-down automobiles, and after they hopped on a bus bound for California, she sold the tires and the parts to the next unlucky driver along the way. The need for car parts was so great, she sold every tire and scrap she bought throughout the war.

Lucille Hamons’ joy, generosity, and dedication to the open road inspired Rick Koch, the current owner of Lucille’s Service Station. Jim Argo/Oklahoma Historical Society

A new decade dawned, and the expansion of the National Highway System came through the center of Oklahoma. Lucille witnessed the birth and construction of Interstate 40 yards away from her service station. She and Carl closed the five-room motel on the property after the new highway completely bypassed it. Lucille sold the last tank of gas from the station pumps in 1986, and her new era as a souvenir shop owner began. But even after their divorce and Carl’s death, Lucille lived at the station for the rest of her life. People enjoyed stopping to see her and her service station as a relic of a bygone era—and it was. It remains one of the few service stations of its kind still standing.

In 1997, the station was added to the National Register of Historic Places, and Lucille Hamons was inducted into the Oklahoma Route 66 Hall of Fame in 1999. According to Lucille’s headstone in a graveyard outside Hydro, the “Mother of the Mother Road” died at home on Route 66 after living and working in the service station for fifty-nine years.

Today, the “Hamon’s Court” neon sign created for the service station in the 1940s hangs as part of the Smithsonian National Museum of American History’s permanent collection. It was donated by the Hamons family in 2003.

Koch continues to preserve the original service station. He added a 1954 Chevy truck alongside restored old-style gas pumps so tourists, YouTubers, and historians can take their photo ops to the next level. He carries on her legacy of hospitality at Lucille’s Roadhouse and Lucille’s Hotel.

“We love people just like Lucille,” Koch says. “So come check it out.”

Written By

Paige Willett