Judy Love

Judy Love, co-founder of Love’s Travel Stops, died on Tuesday November 5, 2024. The company announced Love’s death this week as she died at the age of 87. Judy Love co-founded the convenience store chain with her late husband Tom Love in 1964 The family-owned business said Judy Love was instrumental in building Love’s Travel Stops, expanding the store locations to more than 650 in 42 states. Judy Love and her husband Tom founded Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores in 1964. With a $5,000 gift from her parents, the couple leased an abandoned gas station in Watonga, Oklahoma. Within a few years, the company had 40 stations and began to open convenience stores alongside the pumps. Today Love's has more than 300 locations in 39 states. Judy kept the books and ran the company with Tom until 1975, when she returned to college to complete her degree. Today Tom is chairman and CEO and three of their four children work for the company, whose sales fell 36% in 2015 along with plunging gas prices to $14.2 billion. Judy is secretary of Love's and chairman of the Love Family Fund, the family's charitable foundation and serves on the boards of a number of Oklahoma-based charities. Most recently she joined the board of Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City. Her children Greg, Laura, Jenny and Frank survive her along with her nine grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Bachelor of Arts / Science, University of Central Oklahoma