Viola Mueller Hostess with the Mostest

Patrons of the Ramkota Hotels’ Seasons Café know this lady very well. Since 1975, when the hotel opened as the Kirkwood Motor Inn, she has been greeting and seating folks who come to dine or just have coffee.
Mueller was recruited from the Elks to work in the Café. “I worked two jobs for awhile, here and at Buttrey’s downtown until they closed, then at the mall,” she said. “Finally I thought, ‘why do I work two jobs when I am getting social security?’”

Mueller is 86, turning 87 on January 24th and recently went from four days a week to three. “Most days I work ten or eleven hours, I enjoy it very much,” she said. “I love people, I love to work with people, it’s my life. The Ramkota is a great place. They have treated me very well.”

She shows no sign of slowing down. “People ask, ‘why don’t you retire?’”said Mueller. “I don’t know what I would do with myself. I love to work! I am supposed to be here at 6:00, but I come early and get all my work done, then I sit down and rest before we open.”

“I have been here 24 years and I can count on one hand the number of days she’s missed, except for a week when she was sick,” said Dave Achtenberg, Ramkota General Manager. “She always finds a way to get to work.”