Buddy's wife LaMuriel started it all. Buddy Smothers was working at a finance company downtown. He invested in his wife's energy and talent by helping her become the owner of her first restaurant, the Pixie Drive Inn in Seymour, Tennessee. She hired their cook, Hettie Guffey, to help her out. Hettie's son Big John is still with Buddy's today. Soon, LaMuriel and Hettie were cooking up a storm. People would drive for hours for their country buffet, and business doubled in a year. LaMuriel and Buddy decided it was time to find their specialty, and barbecue from back home in Alabama was what they were craving. They just couldn't find the barbecue that suited their taste. So they created their own. Buddy quit the finance business and joined LaMuriel in her new-found barbecue ambitions. With the help of their customers, they perfected the taste that would define Buddy's. Everything was a Buddy's original, including LaMuriel's lemon ice box pie that she she still makes today for catering and banquet hall customers. 

The first store with the Buddy's name opened in 1972 at 5806 Kingston Pike. When Dinah Shore stopped by and sampled Buddy's delicious hushpuppies, she just had to have the recipe for her cookbook. The house was packed on Friday nights to hear bluegrass bands like Ricky Skaggs and the Knoxville Grass. Local politicians knew a good thing and asked Buddy to bring his barbecue to rallies, and Buddy delivered it in his VW van. Word spread from the World's Fair where people began to know Buddy's as a Tennessee barbecue tradition, and Buddy Smothers as a restaurant business professional in his own right. Buddy was recognized as Restaurateur of the Year and was elected President of the Tennessee Restaurant Association.

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