Bud's Bait History

Gloria Leeson can give you a bunch of reasons why, at the age of 65, she still keeps the bait shop open, but really there is only one reason.

Bud.

Gloria and Bud opened their bait shop, located on Highway 96 on the east edge of Carthage, 35 years ago. Bud and Gloria's Bait Shop is a landmark of sorts. It's a haven for generations of folks who have fished the waters of the nearby Spring River and Kellogg Lake. Gloria will tell you that even though her name was on the bait shop, the business was really Bud's. It was his pride and joy. It was his life.

Gloria was raised in Kansas City. She said she had never even seen a river until she met Bud. But she grew to love the bait shop.

'I was totally in love with him,' she said. 'I guess that's got a lot to do with it.'

Bud passed away on May 19, 2000. He said he was tired. He sat down in his chair at home and died. He was 60.

Gloria keeps coming to work. She sells bait. She sells tackle. She rents canoes, and she talks with her customers. She talks about the weather. She talks about fishing. And she talks about Bud.

'I still get people who maybe stopped in here years ago, and they want to know where that Big Bud is, and I have to tell them he's gone,' Gloria said.

Gloria and Bud were meant for each other. After all, how many successful romances can be traced to a 25-cent bet?

Gloria and Bud got married on their first date. They were 18 years old.

'He bet me a quarter I wouldn't marry him,' Gloria said with a laugh.

Bud lost the bet. Gloria wound up using the quarter she won from Bud to pay the toll on the trip to Miami, Okla., where the couple got married.

Bud and Gloria eloped, but to say the elopement was the stuff of Hollywood romance would be overstating things. At one point, Bud stepped away from the counter where he was filling out the couple's marriage license and walked back to where Gloria was sitting.

'He had to ask me what my last name was,' Gloria said.

The question didn't bother Gloria. The truth is, she wasn't sure what Bud's last name was either.

What Gloria and Bud did know - even then - was that they loved each other, that somehow they had a connection, a bond that neither could explain.

'It was a love made in heaven even before we knew it was,' Gloria said.

Bud's dad built and operated the Sunset Drive-in Theater. Like his dad, Bud knew he wanted to run his own business. But he also knew he didn't want to run a drive-in. So Bud looked for something else, and it didn't take long to find what he was looking for.

Until he met Gloria, Bud's true love was fishing. Growing up, Bud was what you would call a river rat. When he was a kid, the standard answer to 'Where's Bud?' was always 'Check on the river.'

So in 1962, Bud opened a bait shop. He moved the business to its current location in 1969.

As bait shops go, Bud and Gloria's is a good one. It's nothing fancy, but it is stocked with everything you would need for an afternoon on the river. Fishing rods of all types and sizes hang from the walls. So do fishing nets and cages. Other walls and shelves hold lures, lines, weights and tackle boxes. The glass case is filled with fishing reels. Against the north wall is a big tank full of large goldfish. Minnows and crawfish are in smaller tanks below the goldfish tank. You can get just about any type of live, freshwater bait you need at Bud and Gloria's. If Gloria doesn't have what you need, she'll order it for you.

Beyond the normal trappings of a bait shop you can still find traces of Bud. For example, the old-fashioned cash register (it was the original cash register Bud's dad used at the Sunset Drive-in) is adorned with pictures of Bud. Most of the pictures are of Bud and his grandchildren fishing. On the south wall are old newspaper clippings - most of them featuring pictures of a smiling Bud. On the wall behind the glass counter are several of Bud's hunting trophies.

And finally, underneath the glass covering the counter top, is Bud's obituary.

While Gloria and I chatted, she stopped talking and looked around the shop. Then she looked back at me for a second before she spoke.

'I don't know. I just can't seem to get past it,' she said. 'I don't want change anything. I'm running (the bait shop) for him. Do you know what I mean?'

I told Gloria that I did know what she meant. But deep inside, I wondered if I really did. I decided that I didn't.

The only person who knows exactly what Gloria means is Bud.