Austin will remember Murl Loecher as a woman who flipped thousands of hamburgers over five decades at the Mower County Fair. Her family remembers her as feisty, family-oriented and a hard worker.

Murl, who ran Herb & Murl’s Lunch Stand with her husband, Herb, for 55 years, passed away May 29. She was 88. Herb, like many others, will remember her for her laugh.

“Everybody loved her laugh,” Herb said.

Fittingly, Herb met Murl when she worked as a waitress.

“She used to fix me an especially big hamburger,” Herb recalled. The two married in 1947.

Herb worked at a popcorn stand when he was younger and that gave the couple the idea to run a stand at the fair.

The couple had two stands — a popcorn stand and Herb & Murl’s — before purchasing a Wonder Bar stand and then consolidating the stands into one in 1964.

Their specialties were cheeseburgers and Wonder Bars. Murl was the head cook for the duo and flipped the burgers.

“She did all the cooking; she did all the scheduling,” said Barb Granholm, Herb and Murl’s daughter.

The stand was open each year during the National Barrow Show, and Herb recalled one day so busy Murl flipped 130 hamburgers in three hours.

Granholm remembers her mother as a woman who could hold her own.

“She was a short little lady, but she was very feisty,” Granholm said. “She could stand her own ground.”

Herb and Murl were married 67 years and had four children, 10 grandchildren, 20 great-grandchildren and two great-great-grandchildren. According to Granholm, the grandchildren and their friends always wanted to help at Herb & Murl’s fair stand, but Murl’s rule was they had to be at least 12.

When the couple decided to stop hosting the stand about four years ago, Granholm and one of Herb and Murl’s grandchildren kept the tradition alive.

Murl was a part of the Austin community all her life. She worked at Geo. A. Hormel Co., and at Stevenson’s Clothing Store, where she started as a sales associate and eventually moved up to a manager.

“Anybody that worked for her liked her,” Granholm said.

Granholm recalled one of her son’s friends telling her his experience with Murl.

“He said, she was my first boss and my best boss. She told me to get up off of my butt and get to work,” Granholm said with a laugh.

Murl liked to play Scrabble, different board games and later enjoyed playing Solitaire on her hand-held gaming device. She also enjoyed being with her family and grandchildren.

Herb and Murl also enjoyed traveling, and the couple wintered in Hawaii for five years before wintering in Texas for 16 years. The couple also spent 24 summers at their summer home on Mission Lake, Minn.

Herb recalled his wife telling him, “I feel like I’m a gypsy, all I do is pack and unpack.”

They spent 65 years at their home in Austin before moving into The Cedars of Austin last September.