Lucy Hughes

Miss Lucy Hughes ran the Climax Café and Ice Cream Parlor on N. Main in the early 1900s, where she sold “hot and cold lunches at all hours,” while residing with her mother, son, brother, and one male lodger who worked as a kitchen helper. She remained in business until 1917.

Ad for her shop reads:
The Climax Cafe and Ice Cream Parlor
Hot and Cold Lunches at All Hours
Also, Nice Clean Rooms
Miss Lucy Hughes, Proprietress
273 N. Main St.
Memphis, Tenn

She died on September 1, 1918 in Memphis at the age of 45 of bladder cancer. She was laid to rest in Zion Cemetery in Memphis, Tennessee.

Source: Restaurant-ing through history blog, by Jan Whitaker