12-22-06

Lookout Lyndonville! Tammy’s Coming!

Popular Walpole Personality Leaving for Lyndonville

By Chuck Bingaman, Contributing Writer

          Tammy Sheppard, long a defining personality and sassy server at Murray’s Café in the center of Walpole, was honored by more than 100 customers Friday on her last day of work before moving to Lyndonville, Vermont in January.

          “I know I’m going to miss everybody here—I’ve been doing this for more than 20 years,” Ms. Sheppard said at the café’s annual Christmas luncheon for customers. “The restaurant’s changed very little in 20 years and that’s one of the things people like about it.  But I’m not nearly as shy as I was when I began!”

          Walpole architect David Howard presented Sheppard with a table-top “pop-up” model of Murray’s Café complete with the tables and counter chairs inside.  All tables and chairs had been “purchased” and inscribed by friends as a going away gift.

          In addition to thanking Howard and friends present, Sheppard also noted that she had “lost a lot of good customers I’ve cared about and gone to many funerals over the years.  Charlie Booth, Ky Brown, Leigh Fournier, Ned Graves, Bertha Simon…so many.”

          Tom Murray, the Café’s owner and son of the couple that originally opened it in 1980, said “Tammy has been a treasure for us and for me personally.  As I told her, we have been so similar.  We both love our work, we love our people, and we love our customers.  And we’ve enjoyed hanging out together outside of work.”

          Customers from Walpole, Bellows Falls, Alstead and other towns have been dropping in all week to say good-bye.

          Donald and Judith Rogers of Bellows Falls, regulars at breakfast, laughingly said Thursday “we give her a hard time, but she goes right along with it…Tammy’s going to be missed, but she’s promised us that she will come back and visit.”

          Thaddeus Self of Walpole agreed “we’re going to miss her!  She’s always a friendly, familiar face.  It’s nice to have someone call you by name when you come in—it makes it personal rather than purely business.”

          Michael Reynolds and his mother Verone of Bellows Falls noted that Tammy has always been “upbeat even though she’s often under stress serving many tables and she always treats everyone with equal attention.  She’s very genuine.”

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