Loving Wife of Bryan
Daughter of MELISSIE HANNAH RICHARDSON HUGHEY [ also buried at Ozarks Memorial Park Cemetary] and
JAMES L " HUGHEY
1869–1944
and Sister of
OFFIE Howard Hughey
1892–1980
Audie Marie Hughey
1895–
Otie Jane Hughey
1897–1990
Almus Cilven Hughey
1900–1980
Alva J Hughey
1902–1980
Ora Alfred Hughey
1905–1907
Troy Mike Hughey
1907–1998
Bennie Hughey
1912–2006
Argie B Hughey
1915–1988
Virgie Mae Hughey
1918–1989
Photo and Bio posted May 19,2008 by Neice , M.L. Gentry

There are people who are destined to be healers in life. Others are teachers almost from childhood. Still others seem fated to work with their hands, crafting and fashioning objects of practical value or incredible beauty.

If Argie Moore was an artist, her palette was the table. She seemed destined to please the palate of the thousands for whom she labored with pleasure over the years in the kitchen. For as surely as there are destined healers and teachers, craftsmen and artists, Argie was destined to cook.

“She started out cooking for my uncle Howard,” daughter Barbara Gimlin Collins said recently. “Her oldest brother, he had a mule team and he took her to cook for him.” The mule team provided the muscle behind work crews who built roads in the 1930’s. A young slip of a girl, “she cooked for these teams of men; and that’s where she met my dad.”

Dad was Bryan Moore, born November 4, 1909, son of Archie and Maude (Lowry), grandson of Joseph Moore, himself the grandson of two old patriarchs of early pioneer families, Micajah Haworth and Zachariah Moore.

. Argie Betty Hughey was born November 26, 1914 just across the state line in Boone County, Arkansas. She was the daughter of Melissie Hannah Richardson and James Langston Hughey, “Hank” among friends. Descended on her mother’s side from solid Virginia stock, Argie’s ancestors included Townsends, Stones and Richardsons who had settled there in earliest Colonial days and who later came to Missouri before statehood in 1820. They went to Boone County after the Civil War.

She had ten brothers and sisters: Howard O., Audie Marie, Otis Jane, Almus, Alvey James, Ora Alfred, Troy Mike, Samuel Clay, Bennie Thurman and Virgie Mae. Our subject was next to the youngest. It was while she cooked for Uncle Howard and the mule team road crew in Cass County that she met Bryan Moore; young, dark haired, handsome. They were married June 25, 1932.

Tables ladled heavy with home cooked meals kept six growing children healthy: Orville Ray, Genevieve Fern, Barbara, Shirley, Clovis, and Quentin. When Quentin was in high school his mother went to work for the Kirbyville School as a cook. A photo of her from the mid-1950’s shows a well groomed lady in a print dress, white apron, and tanned, possibly from working in her garden. She and Bryan had 34 years together. He died in 1969.

She later remarried; George Parker.

Mom, “Beatrice Blackwell and George operated the Old Mine Restaurant at Silver Dollar City,” daughter Barbara explained. Later, they had a barbeque place on West Highway 76 near Branson. In the 1980’s, she and George served up hot plates of fried eggs, sausage and potatoes for breakfast and fried chicken or catfish dinners at George and Argie’s Restaurant on their place between Mildred and Kirbyville.

“No one could cook a steak better than George Parker,” Barbara said.

The restaurant was shuttered for good a few years later and Argie put away the last of the dishes. When she died in 1988 she was laid to rest beside Bryan at Ozarks Memorial Park.

Photo taken Kirbyville School 1957 courtesy Branson Centennial Museum.