IraDell Storm Robbie IraDell Storm, cofounder of Storm's Restaurants, died Jan. 1, 2009, following a short illness. She was 97.

Funeral services were Jan. 4 at First Street Church of Christ, with burial at Oak Hill Cemetery. In Mrs. Storm's honor, Storm's Drive-in of Lampasas closed for the service.

Mrs. Storm was born in 1911 on a ranch near Pidcoke in Coryell County, the daughter of pioneer Central Texans Ira and Odelia Upton.

At age 8, she helped drive a herd of cattle from Gatesville to Izoro, walking barefoot for some 25 miles.

After graduating from Gatesville High School in 1928, she earned her teaching certificate at Abilene Christian College. In 1930, Mrs. Storm began a career as a public schoolteacher, working at various schools in Coryell and Lampasas counties, including Evant, Plainview, Slater, Peabody, Harmon and Adamsville.

During her summers off, she worked on her bachelor's degree at Tarleton State, and later at Southwest Texas State Teacher's College, where one of her classmates was future President Lyndon Johnson.

In 1940, she married Jim Storm. The couple built the first Storm's restaurant in Lampasas in 1950. Then known as Dairy Cue, the oldfashioned drive-in became a popular hangout.

Several times, Mrs. Storm waited on Elvis Presley, who in 1959 was a soldier stationed at Fort Hood.

Storm's now has locations in Burnet, Hamilton, Kingsland and Marble Falls, as well as the original Storm's in Lampasas, where Mrs. Storm continued to work keeping the books until she was 93.

She gained national recognition in 2004 when Scripps Howard News Service carried a story about her annual birthday ritual at Enchanted Rock. Mrs. Storm first climbed the 425-foot-high granite boulder on her 80th birthday in 1991, and continued each year until she was 96.

A lifelong member of the Church of Christ, she taught Sunday School many years. As a Meals on Wheels volunteer for the Lampasas Senior Center, Mrs. Storm volunteered into her early 90s.

She loved to travel and visited all 50 states as well as Mexico, Canada and Panama, where she steered a boat through the Panama Canal.

She is survived by two sons, Robbis and John Doyne; five grandchildren, Kim Vorndran, David Storm, Laura Storm, Josh Storm and Ginny Storm; five great-grandchildren, Becky and Noah Storm, Emma and Sarah Vorndran, and Zachary Gfeller; four siblings, Loraine Murrah, Bonnie Davis, Janese Lancaster and Conrad Upton; two brothersin law, O.L. Frazer and Ted Davis; two sisters-in-law, Iberia and Pat Upton; two daughters-in-law, Miriam and Dolores Storm; a granddaughter-in-law, Amanda Storm; two grandsons-in-law, Ronnie Vorndran and Marc Gfeller; and numerous nieces and nephews.

Mrs. Storm was preceded in death by her husband in 1985.

Arrangements by Sneed Funeral Chapel of Lampasas.