Founder of Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Stores passes away | 5newsonline.com

Founder of Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Stores passes away | 5newsonline.com

"William Henry (Bill) Braum, the founder of Braum's Ice Cream and Dairy Stores, passed away at his home in Tuttle, OK, on Monday, March 23 [,2020]. He was 92.

"Bill Braum was an innovator in the marketing of dairy products. He was a dairyman, farmer, processor, manufacturer, and retailer of dairy products....

"Early in his life, he began helping his father, Henry, in the family business - a small butter and milk processing plant in Emporia. In the 1930s, Henry added ice-cream processing to the operation.

"After graduating from the University of Kansas in 1949 with a B.S. in Business Administration, Bill went to work full time for his father...."

Braum and his father built the Peter Pan Ice Cream chain in Kansas, Braum sold the stores in 1967, and began building a new chain under his own name, based out of Oklahoma City. I can recall a Peter Pan store near my great-grandmother's house in Coffeyville, on the NE corner of 8th and Spruce (now the Natural Food Center), and one in Claremore, south of the park on the west side of town, where OK 20 turns south (now Francesco's Italian Restaurant). Interesting to learn that Braum's is vertically integrated -- still making ice cream and dairy products from Braum's own herds near Tuttle and Shattuck.