Zentner's Daughter Interview Part One

[BEGIN INTERVIEW] [00:00:00, Begin Part 1]

Amanda Gray: Okay, excellent. So, if you would be so kind as to tell us your name, your date of birth, your role, and the name of the restaurant, those four things.

Betty Zentner: Hi, ooh, I don't say hi do I? [Laughs]. Cut. [Laughs]. My name is Betty Zentner. I'm sixty-three years old. I was born January, the 18th, 1949. I am the owner and operator of Zentner's Daughter Steakhouse in San Angelo, Texas.

AG: Excellent. And would you mind telling us a bit about, um, your background with-let's start off with your background, your family's background here and how you all came to be in this area.

BZ: I guess I probably would start with my father because that's probably the most as to how the Zentners got into the restaurant business, or as my father would say, cafe business.

My father was born November the 24th, Thanksgiving Day, 1899. He was the son, the oldest son of a German immigrant family.

His dad established and moved to Rowena, Texas, and after he settled he brought his wife and their first child by um, I'm thinking they came, when they came with the family they came through Galveston, but when my grandfather first came across he came through New York. And they lost the first son [Raymond] in, uh, Westphalia, traveling through Westphalia [Texas].

Anyway, so, he pretty much located with a lot of the same people and from what I can understand is he traveled sort of in a caravan because it was not just the Zentner family. There were a lot of old name families like Lange, and Schwertners, and Barrons and Bradens that traveled to Rowena.

So I think that his childhood mainly was brought up with his father, August Zentner, and his mother, Caroline, trying to start a, I would say, a saloon, as you could see a saloon in the 1900s. And he stayed pretty much with that. So my dad grew up with that same type of background. I think after awhile, Dad, I have to say, was not very settled into staying-oh I'm absolutely sure he wasn't settled into-

[Recorder malfunctions and cuts off] [00:03:58, End Part 1]