Mary Fray closing Ellwood breakfast and burger shop

ELLWOOD CITY Mary Fray in her ballcap frying bacon and flipping pancakes at the grill is a familiar sight that will disappear on Christmas Eve. Frays Ellwood Breakfast and Burgers at 530 Lawrence Ave. will close at 3 p.m. on Tuesday.

I wasnt planning on it, but it is time, Fray said. And Im tired.

Not planning anything special for the closing. Ill just close up and go home. Ill come back and get all my things out before New Years.

The walls of Breakfast and Burgers are covered with the history of Ellwood City, from pictures of the 1926 Ellwood City High School football team to a picture of the Cavert Wire Co. picnic on July 24, 1917. There are T-shirts from Frays other businesses and one from PeWees and a 4-foot-long piece of wood from the Lincoln High School boys gym that was there from 1963 to 2010.

There are many photos of people, customers and friends. One picture is of John F. Kennedy sitting in his rocking chair on a visit to Wampum in 1960. In the picture with him is then-Congressman Frank Clark and then-Pennsylvania Gov. David L. Lawrence. On the wall by the television set is a Howdy Doody puppet that a customer bought for Fray on a trip in South Carolina. She has hundreds of stuffed animals, and some are at the restaurant.

Its all stuff. I got a lot of stuff, Fray said.

Dominating the wall is an enormous Christmas wreath that she and her husband, Tom, made from their Christmas tree at home many years ago. Using a plywood wooden base, they glued on the branches of the tree and put on the ornaments from their tree, and through the years, customers have added to the wreath.

The Frays didnt plan to go into the restaurant business. She and Tom were always buying houses, remodeling them and reselling, and when the Central Cafe came up for sale in 1972, they bought it, and Fray describes it as her best years as she cooked, waited tables and tended bar.

It was a smoky place. Half the customers were junkies, but they never did or said anything wrong while they were there. There were a lot of good people, Fray said. If a guy said a bad word, another guy would remind him that there was a lady there.

After running the Central Cafe for 2 1/2 years, they bought a pizza business on Division Avenue and moved it to Wampum Avenue, where it became Marys Pizza Shop. Their next venture was on Lawrence Avenue, where they opened IMB Frays.

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Mary Fray closing Ellwood breakfast and burger shop