Willard Hubert Barlage, the owner of the Pixie Diner, passed away on December 10, 2025, at the age of 108.  Better known as Bill, he was born on March 16, 1917, in Robertson, South Dakota.  The family was poor, residing in a five-room house with no electricity or running water, and made their living on a rented farm using horse-drawn teams instead of a tractor.  He was the third child, with two older brothers and two younger sisters.

Bill’s early schooling took place in a one-room school that encompassed all eight grades and only two to three children per grade.  For high school, he walked, hitchhiked, or rode a horse five miles to attend.  He was the only one of the boys in the family to graduate, as the other two had to drop out of school early to work on the farm.  Bill graduated from high school in 1936 and left home with five dollars in his pocket, hitchhiking or riding the rails, to find a job.

The depression was still underway, and jobs were scarce, so Bill joined a government work program and ended up in Monticello, Utah, on a road-building crew.  He was assigned the job of mess clerk, which was his first exposure to the food preparation business.  While in Monticello, he met Helen Hansen.  Bill and Helen were married in 1938 and lived in Salt Lake City, Utah.

Demand for trade people was high at the time, and Bill learned to weld.  When World War II began, he went to Alaska as a civilian to repair military aircraft.  He welded in an airplane hangar during the day and at night worked in a local resident as a short order cook.  It was there that he met Martin Winkler, the main chef, who would eventually become Bill’s partner in the restaurant business.  He was drafted into the Army in 1944, and when the war was over, Bill returned to Farmington, Utah, ten miles from Salt Lake City.

Building on their business experience in Alaska, Bill and Marty decided to venture into the restaurant business and settled on a location in Lansing, Michigan.  The Ritz Restaurant, as it was known, operated seven days a week, from 6:00 AM until midnight, and Bill was on site for virtually all of its open hours.  Bill managed the restaurant, and Marty did the cooking.  After eight successful years, Bill began looking for a new location for a restaurant.  He found one in Muncie, Indiana, and the Pixie Diner was established in 1955.  Bill moved to Muncie, and Helen and the family moved back to Farmington, Utah.  Bill and Helen were divorced five years later.

The Pixie was born before the landscape was dotted with franchise and fast food businesses, and soon became an institution in Muncie.  It was open 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and sooner or later, most Muncie residents found their way there, many of whom became regular customers.  The menu was typical diner fare – steaks, chops, salads, sandwiches, breakfast foods, etc.  Although the diner was constantly busy, initially it could only serve 75 people when totally full.  A dining room, which could accommodate an additional 125 people, was added later.  Bill opened a second restaurant in a nearby shopping center in 1957.

Bill treated his employees as well as his customers, and consequently, there was very little turnover.  Together, the diner and the restaurant employed about 50 full-time people.  There was always free coffee available for policemen, and Bill was known never to turn away a person who was hungry but had no money.

Bill met Mary Babbitt at the diner in the early 1960s when she was working in the marketing department at Ball Brothers.  After Bill proposed marriage to her, she came to work for the diner.  They were married in 1963, and together they operated the restaurants.  For the first time, Bill had a true operating partner, with Mary running the diner at night and Bill during the day, with Marty in the Kitchen.  They sold the diner in 1978 when Bill was 62, and retired from the restaurant business.

During retirement, Bill and Mary traveled extensively around the country in their motor home along with their two Yorkshire Terriers.  Mary passed away in 2014 after over 50 years of marriage.  Bill continued to live in the home they had shared until he was 103 years old, at which time he sold the house and moved into assisted living.

Bill is survived by four children: Jim Barlage, Helen Nelson, Fran Measells, and Dean Hamilton.  A private graveside service will be held at a later date.