Oklahoma Together: Cattlemen’s Longtime Dressing Maker Retires

A more than 100-year-old metro steakhouse is losing an institution in the kitchen this week. 

Rosie Parker, 81, is officially retiring on Thursday.

Parker has been keeper of Cattlemen’s famous salad dressing and makes it each morning for each of the past 17 years.

“There is something about the dressing they really like,” Parker said, who moved to Oklahoma from Panama in 1944.

Cattlemen’s owner Dick Stubbs first hired her as a carhop for the Hollie’s Drive-In restaurant in 1970.

He’s brought her to several of his other restaurants over the last 50 years.

“Over the years, she been the best employee you could ever imagine,” Stubbs said.

“He was the boss when I first met him and now he’s my best friend,” Parker said.

Parker said she will now spend more time with her family in that includes six children, 12 grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Parker said she’ll visit the Stockyards City institution to visit with her old friend, but not for the salad dressing.

“I’m a Thousand Island girl,” Parker said.