Earlier Thursday morning when 41 Action News called Murray's Homemade Ice Cream in Westport, the voicemail greeting said doors closed December 4 and would reopen in March. But by Thursday afternoon, the greeting had been deleted and the Murray's neon sign had been taken down.
"You have a place like that that is a family business made with love and everything is delicious," said Janet Bloom. "It makes me so sad that they will be gone."
SEE THE AUCTION SITE: Murray's going out of business sale
Across the street Bloom owns and runs Tea Drops cafe. She said she's torn up over the news that after three decades, this Westport's staple is closing.
"It's an original," said Bloom. "We are losing all the originals. Everything is becoming a chain. That's the problem with so many places and I see it creeping into Westport."
Her fear is that a chain store, cafe or restaurant will take Murray's place.
"That's going to be the backbone," she said. "If we lose that, you won't even know - I won't know if I'm in Kansas City, if I'm in Omaha, in Tulsa - it all looks the same."
According to Murray's Visit KC page, the mother-daughter team of Penny and Murray Nixon opened the homemade ice cream and cookies shop back in 1984. Documents show Ann Nixon runs things now, but she was not available for comment at the time of this story.
"I want this area to be thriving and to be an original place where people can walk around and eat. It's so historical and it's quaint and it's a wonderful area," said Bloom.
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Terra Hall can be reached at terra.hall@kshb.com.
