Over the past two summers, visitors to the western end of Haywood County have experienced something few others ever have — a Maggie Valley without Joey’s Pancake House. 

Since announcing its closure after 51 years in business, Joey’s Pancake House owner Brenda O’Keefe and her staff have been bombarded with well wishes and awards, including the highest honor in North Carolina — Order of the Long Leaf Pine.

Some institutions are meant to last forever, while others have their place in time and then they’re gone. 

After Tuesday, June 13, Joey’s Pancake House in Maggie Valley will be gone.

The year was 1966; “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly” was on the big screen, “Bonanza” was on the small screen, and an Irish guy from Philly had just arrived in Maggie Valley to open Joey’s Pancake House.

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America’s fascination with cowboy culture had not only elevated the Lorne Greene television show and the Clint Eastwood movie to the top of their respective charts that year, but had also elevated a western-themed amusement park called Ghost Town in the Sky more than 4,600 feet up to the top of nearby Buck Mountain three years prior.

Brenda O’Keefe has dozens, if not hundreds, of stories about the people who have passed through her life at Joey’s Pancake House since 1966.