Grand Opening, McDonald’s, 1825 S.MacArthur, 1961. John Mack, Sr. at far right.

According to his sister-in-law Dorothy, Lithuanian immigrant John Makarauskas changed his name to John Mack 16 years before he opened the first McDonald’s restaurant in Springfield. Back then, John, Sr. had no way of knowing he would be the man responsible for bringing Mack-fries, Mack-cheeseburgers and Big “Macks” to Springfield, along with some of the city’s prime teen hangouts.

His first two McDonald’s across from the Allis Chalmers main gate (1957) and on South MacArthur Blvd. north of Ash St. (1961) were drive-up and open-air– without eat-in capacity–and with golden arches built right into either end of the red-and-white tile buildings. Because customers back then were expected to eat in their cars, the McDonald’s parking lots were much more extensive than the restaurants.

According to Glenn Manning, in the 1960s and ‘70s, hot rods would scoop a fast-food loop bracketed on either end by one of these first two McDonald’s. The loop ran north from the MacArthur drive-up, then east on South Grand Ave. to a Top’s Big Boy car-hop restaurant on or near Fifth St., then down Fifth St. (one way) until Fifth ran together with Sixth to the Sixth St. McDonald’s, before turning and heading back north on Sixth St. to South Grand.

In the early years, all the burgers, fries and buns were fresh and sourced locally. According to John, Sr.’s daughter Mary Ann (Mack) Butts, her father had a ground-beef patty-making machine made specially in St. Louis so he could keep his long-time Keys Ave. grocery store employee Frances Trello busy churning out fresh patties for his new McDonald’s franchises. Corporate dictated the lean and fat content of each patty, along with the recipe followed by a local contract bakery that delivered fresh-baked buns daily.

Son Jim Mack recalls that the potatoes came in 100-pound bags on a rail car. They were peeled with the help of a peeling machine, then sliced by hand into fries–and after being washed and rinsed a total of three times– blanched at low heat till they were finally ready to be deep-fried.

The McDonald’s Drive-in Little League Team poses in front of the chain’s first franchise in Springfield on South Sixth Street in 1961. Source: Illinois State Journal, April 27, 1999.

The soft ice cream for shakes was sourced locally, but the shake flavor mixes came from headquarters. John, Sr. reportedly used to joke that they were created in a lab by Gary Butts, daughter Mary Ann’s husband, who had been a chemist (and was sometimes seen tutoring teen employees with their chemistry books).

Many of John Mack, Sr.’s kids and grandkids worked in the family business, including son John, Jr. and daughter JoAnn (Mack) Shaughnessy’s husband and their daughter Debbie (Shaughnessy) Blazis. The magic starting age for most of the Mack kids seemed to be 15 – -one year older than John, Sr. was when he followed his father Stanley into the coal mines in 1926. Son Jim Mack remembers starting at age 13 at minimum wage, which was around 75 cents an hour.

Two minimum-wage teen employees who went on to become famous in Springfield were Dick Levi (Levi, Ray & Shoup), whom Jim Mack remembers training at the cash counter at the Sixth St. store, and Wes Barr, currently a candidate for Sangamon County Sheriff.

John, Sr. was a bigger-than-life personality who “would light up the place” when he visited one of his franchises to sit down and enjoy a burger, according to Don Gietl, who worked at a “Mack McDonald’s” just like brothers Jim, Charlie, and Terry.

McDonald’s 2849 S 6th after eat-in space was added

John, Sr. had opened three McDonald’s by the time he died at age 61 in 1974. His widow Mary and sons Tom and Jim and daughter Mary Ann and her husband Gary Butts went on to open five more locations in Springfield, usually as what the family considered a superior option to having corporate open competing new locations by bringing in a non-Mack franchisee. Not all of the new locations that corporate wanted were profitable, and Jim Mack remembers that growing the business took a heavy toll on the family over the years. But at least if a new location cannibalized existing business, the business “gained” from a Mack would still belong to a Mack.

John, Sr., had borrowed $100,000 from Illinois National Bank to get started on S. Sixth St.–a fortune at the time. However, Jim reports that the capital stakes rose dramatically with each new restaurant, especially as they became larger sit-down facilities, so that all the borrowed capital was not paid back to lender INB until the family sold all eight of their Springfield franchises and totally exited the business on Jan. 1, 1989.

John, Sr. had a right-hand man, Pat Murphy, who secured the first McDonald’s franchise in Jacksonville, which Pat intended to be operated by his son, who died tragically, leading to the sale of that restaurant, as well. The complete list of “Mack McDonald’s” included stores on: Sixth St., MacArthur Blvd., West Jefferson, Old State Capitol Plaza (Fifth & Adams), Capital City Shopping Center, White Oaks Mall, Chatham Road, Ninth & North Grand.

1975 artist’s rendering of John Mack, Sr. photo placed inside his McDonald’s restaurants in memoriam

The local Ronald McDonald House at Ninth and Carpenter was created as a result of a Mack family tragedy—the death from brain cancer of Dorothy and Frank Makarauskas’s 18-year-old son Robert. Robert was Mary and John Mack, Sr.’s nephew. After Mary visited a Ronald McDonald house in New York City, where young Robert was being treated, she dedicated herself to donating and raising the funds necessary to make it a reality in Springfield. The Mack McDonalds also sponsored many fundraisers and gave generously to Goodwill, among other local charities.

This post is dedicated to the memories of Mary (Gidus) and John Mack, Sr.;  John and Mary’s children JoAnn (Mack) Shaughnessy and John Mack, Jr.; and John, Sr.’s brother Frank Makarauskas and Frank and Dorothy’s son Robert. 

Stanley & Agota (Agnes) Baltramiejunaite Makarauskas and her uncle. Front row l to r: Sons Michael and John Makarauskas, 1922, the day Agnes & her two children immigrated and were reunited with Stanley, who arrived in the U.S. in 1914.

Thousands of local youth–boys, only, at first–earned their first paycheck at one of Springfield’s first 8 McDonald’s restaurants opened by the Makarauskas (Mack) family starting in 1957. Previously, I posted all the Mack “McHistory” that I could find in public records. This week, we benefit from the memories and photos of Jim Mack, Mary Ann (Mack) Butts, and Dorothy Makarauskas.

It’s hard to overestimate the impact of Springfield’s first fast food on local eating habits and teen employment and culture. Through the 1970s, despite paying only minimum wage, the McDonald’s on S. MacArthur Blvd. (opened in 1961) was not only THE place to work. It became such a popular teen and “hippie” hangout that the packed parking lot required its own bouncer. Hot rods cruised around the restaurant and up and down MacArthur a la “American Graffiti” every Friday and Saturday night.

S. Sixth St. ad, circa 1957

Who brought the future as we know it to Springfield? John Mack (Makarauskas), Sr., a Lithuanian immigrant who arrived in Springfield in 1922 at age 10 with his mother Agnes and brother Michael– speaking no English. John earned only a sixth-grade education before, like so many other immigrant boys, he had to follow his father Stanley and older brother Michael Makarauskas into our local coal mines at age 14. (Stanley had immigrated first, to the Pennsylvania coal fields, in 1914.)

Michael Makarauskas wedding, circa 1930. Brother John standing directly behind the seated groom.

Many miners now gone considered John Mack a hero because of the way he supported the Progressive Miners of America by “carrying” his striking brethren on credit at a grocery store or informal, home-based “commissary” during the deepest trough of the Great Depression, when he and thousands of other miners were thrown out of work by the Central Illinois “Mine Wars” (as reported on page 92 of the book Divided Kingdom). However, the first John Mack grocery store remembered by Dorothy Makarauskas, wife of John’s much younger brother Frank, operated from 1941-43 on 1st St. just south of Laurel. John closed the 1st St. store and opened a larger store at 1501 Keys Ave. in 1943.

Dorothy remembers that the Keys Ave. store, which sold meat, bread, milk and dry goods, was Springfield’s first “self-serve” corner grocery where customers picked up their own items and brought them to checkout clerk Frances Trello. (At other corner groceries of the time, the staff would move about the store filling customers’ orders.)

John’s younger brother Frank Makarauskas, 18, carries a block of ice from the S. 1st St. store to a customer’s car. 1943

John’s son Jim Mack remembers the financial squeeze his father faced as he continued to broadly extend store credit well into the 1950s, worsened by the arrival of the first supermarket chains that began eating the independent grocers’ lunch. Then one day McDonald’s founder Ray Kroc entered the picture.

Jim was living on S. 6th with parents John, Sr. and Mary (Gidus) Mack, brothers Tom and John, Jr. and sisters JoAnn and Mary Ann when he says Kroc drove by the main gate of the huge Allis Chalmers construction machinery factory across the street. That’s when Kroc approached John Mack, Sr., simply because he considered the real estate across from Allis Chalmers the perfect site for Springfield’s first McDonald’s restaurant (the nation’s 69th). It was serendipity that John, Sr. was a butcher able to provide ground beef, but struggling to survive in the dying corner-grocery business. It was also the opportunity that John, Sr. had been waiting for all his life.

He accepted Kroc’s proposal to replace the site of the family’s home with a McDonald’s drive-up restaurant. But, first, he had to borrow $100,000—akin to borrowing almost a million dollars today—in order to clear the site, move his family’s home around the corner, build the restaurant and parking lot, and pay his franchise fee.

Recalls daughter Mary Ann (Mack) Butts: “Mary, our mother, was in the meetings with him when he went to the banks. They literally laughed at him and said, ‘You have a 6th-grade education and you want to open a restaurant?’ Mother said it was embarrassing and she really felt bad for him. The banks also said, ‘Who would want to buy a 15-cent hamburger?’ They thought it was ridiculous because that was kind of expensive back then.”

Who, indeed?

1975 artist’s rendering of John Mack, Sr. photo to be placed inside his McDonald’s restaurants in memoriam

John, Sr. didn’t give up. Illinois National Bank finally agreed to make the loan, and out of loyalty, Mary Ann recalls, the Macks continued to do their McDonald’s financing through INB even after John, Sr. died in 1974 at age 61.

“Dad didn’t have a long life, and he only had so much education, but he had guts and he was really smart—very good at math. He only had a sixth-grade education, but he died a millionaire, and we are very proud of him,” Mary Ann said.

Coming Next Week: Chapter III of Springfield’s Mack “McHistory” will reveal how the first McDonald’s burgers and fries were produced, tell the story behind our local Ronald McDonald House, and share the names of a few famous Springfieldians who once sold Big Macs.