This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2008, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
OAKLEY - Ken's Kash Store is still Ken's Kash Store - with one notable exception: No Ken.
The friendly doors of the small barn-red Oakley landmark are wide open, just like always, Monday through Saturday, 7 a.m. to 8 p.m.
Pioneer Day throngs still clean out the shelves of beer and soda pop to fuel their celebration on July 24. And kids with ice cream mustaches swing their legs on the front-porch bench, like they do every summer.
But Oakley icon Ken Woolstenhulme, 77, who has owned and operated the place since 1971, isn't around.
Well, that's not exactly true. He still stops by. How else would he catch up on town gossip?
Earlier this month - 37 years to the day since he purchased the then-Oakley Merc from Leo Frazier - Woolstenhulme sold the little grocery to Larry Devey.
Devey, a Sandy resident who worked for Smith's Food and Drug Stores, has been asking Woolstenhulme to make a deal since the Deveys bought a vacation cabin east of Oakley a decade ago.
"The day me and my wife first came in here, Ken was back behind the back counter cutting steaks, and I said, 'Ken, how would you like to sell this place?' "
Woolstenhulme didn't think Devey was serious.
"I thought he was BS-ing me," the one-time rodeo saddle-bronc rider smirked last week.
Woolstenhulme's forbearers helped settle the Kamas Valley, and Ken, a lifelong resident, has served as Oakley's mayor and LDS bishop, among other positions. He also has been a member of the South Summit School Board and sits on the Summit County Commission.
When he wasn't running the store, Ken and brother Dutch ran cattle. The two also were pickup men - guys on horseback who pull riders off bucking broncs - and mainstays of Oakley's annual July Fourth rodeo. Ken still wrangles 140 head. Dutch, who owned the filling station next to Ken's Kash, died two years ago in an ATV accident.
"I had a lot of help running this place," Woolstenhulme said last week as he reminisced about the store where wife Karen and his children all worked. "Karen raised the kids here. All five of our kids grew up here."
Ken's Kash is the community's "social-gathering" place, said Amy Rydalch, who stopped by recently looking for tortilla chips.
She married one of Oakley's Rydalch brothers, Mark. Woolstenhulme's daughter, Kena, married the other Rydalch brother, Craig.
"When you come in here, you know the people at the counter. You know who prepared the salsa. They have really good salsa. And Ken would give you a special cut of meat," Amy Rydalch said. "And you just catch up with the people who live here."
But the store about an hour's drive east of Salt Lake City is not just a gathering spot for locals. Practically everyone who owns a summer cabin in the foothills of the nearby Uinta Mountains seems to have an emotional stake in Ken's Kash.
Michelle Jenkins and sister Laurel McConkie grew up along the Wasatch Front, but spent summers near Oakley, population about 1,300. Now they bring their youngsters to the store for ice cream and treats.
"It's like going back in time," said McConkie. "Ken's Kash is as much a part of our tradition as going to the cabin."
Susan Pace, who's worked at Ken's Kash for nine years, greets locals and visitors alike with a friendly smile. She hears all the gossip.
"Some of the stuff is funny. And some of it isn't."
But she never picked up any secrets about her former boss. Including when he got sick.
Woolstenhulme was hospitalized this spring for emergency gallbladder surgery. His son, Zane, took over running the place.
New owner Devey recalled that one weekend he made his oft-repeated offer to buy.
"Zane was in the back cutting steaks. I said, 'I'm tired of asking.' And Zane said, 'Wait a minute. We may have a deal.' "
Once Ken recovered, he and Zane and Devey, sitting around the Woolstenhulme's kitchen table, made it official.
"I'm happy," said Ken.
And Devey is all smiles, too. "I'm living a dream."
The big challenge now, the new owner said, is to keep Ken's Kash the way it always has been.
"I open the door about 6 a.m. and put on the coffee for the boys. And whoever comes in, comes in," he said. "About 7 p.m. there's a rush. Everybody knows Ken's Kash closes at 8 o'clock. But the stragglers are still coming at 8:15."