Luby’s Reopens 5 Months After Fatal Shootings

The restaurant where a gunman smashed his truck into a lunchtime crowd last October and went on the nation’s deadliest shooting rampage reopened Thursday and hundreds of people, including some survivors, showed up.

“There’s just that driving force inside of me that says you’ve got to go in,” said survivor Evelyn Seales, 63. “This is something that’s going to make me get on with my life.”

The buffet-style Luby’s Cafeteria was a popular gathering spot in this town of 63,000 when former merchant marine George Hennard drove his pickup into the dining room last Oct. 16 and began shooting. He killed 23 people, then himself. Hennard’s motive remains a mystery.

Luby’s Cafeteria Inc., the San Antonio-based chain of 156 restaurants, decided to reopen the cafeteria along the main highway after receiving more than 300 letters from residents in support.

“They’ve been waiting for it to open,” said Mayor Major Blair, who ate lunch Thursday at Luby’s with his wife. By noon, the buffet line had more than 50 people and extended outside.

There were no ceremonies, banners or signs to mark the reopening. But several changes in the cafeteria’s appearance were noticeable.

Floor-to-ceiling glass windows at the front of the brick building were replaced with waist-high brick and windows in a $350,000 remodeling project. Hennard drove through one of the windows.

The restaurant’s deep brown brick exterior was given a lighter shade. A gazebo-like area was removed from the dining room and its green-and-white styling was updated with contemporary colors, deep wood trim, wallpaper and hanging plants.

“Concerns? All the time, still at this moment, but not second-guesses,” Luby’s Chairman Ralph Erben said of the reopening.

Connie Nickolson, whose cousin, Nancy Stansbury, was killed in the shooting, said she wished Luby’s would have built a new restaurant somewhere else in town.

“I just don’t think people should be in there, eating, laughing where people were slaughtered,” she said. “That’s a strong word but that’s exactly what happened.”