He devoted his life to family’s landmark eatery
For the McLaughlin family, Mrs. Mac’s Restaurant was not just a place to eat, but a place to gather and bond since it opened in 1945.
Some family members could even call the restaurant their home because there were living quarters on the second floor. Gotha resident Cecil Wayne McLaughlin Jr. was one of them.
“The boys all had a bedroom, and they all went downstairs for breakfast before heading off to school,” said his sister-in-law, Diane McLaughlin.
To Cecil McLaughlin, the downtown Kissimmee restaurant was his home and one of his first places of employment. Even after he left to get a degree in forestry at the University of Florida, served in the Navy for six years and later got a full-time job elsewhere, he still traveled to the restaurant every weekend to help until it was sold in the early 1980s.
“He was the family record-keeper,” Diane McLaughlin said. “His brother would call him up for any information he needed about a birthday or family history.”
Cecil McLaughlin, often referred to as Wayne, died Feb. 17 of heart failure. He was 75.
Born in Orlando and raised in Kissimmee, McLaughlin, along with his two younger brothers, graduated from Osceola High School. His brother Jim has fond memories of how Cecil loved to hunt and help out at Gatorland when it was first being developed.
“Wayne was a big deer hunter. He was just an outdoor person,” Jim McLaughlin said. “He first started hunting when he was in fourth grade and was an excellent shot. He would shoot, I would collect, and Mom would do the cooking.”
Cecil McLaughlin’s daughter Dawn McLaughlin du Mee recalled the stories that her dad would tell about his hunting escapades.
“He told mehowhewould hunt armadillos that he later sold to Gatorland for them to be made into baskets,” du Mee said.
But no matter how much hunting McLaughlin would do, he always made time to help at the family restaurant in downtown Kissimmee.
His grandmother, Alma McLaughlin, started Mrs. Mac’s Restaurant, a place that was known not just for its fresh home cooking created from family recipes but also for its family tradition and being an early landmark in the Kissimmee area.
“That restaurant was open seven days a week; openat 5 a.m. andclosed at 9p.m.,” du Mee said. “Everyone knew each other — and throughout my dad’s life, he’s lived right above the restaurant.”
Diane McLaughlin added that her brother-in-law knew what regular customers wanted to eat just by hearing their names.
“No short orders were taken. Just names were given, and we knew what they wanted. Everyone piled together and helped run the place when needed,” she said.
When family members started getting older and the restaurant became too much to keep going, the business was sold in the early 1980s. Afterward, McLaughlin worked for Cook’s Power Equipment until his retirement in 2003.
McLaughlin also is survived by his wife, Jean; another daughter, Dawn Michelle Hutchinson; and two grandchildren.
Conrad & Thompson Funeral Home, Kissimmee, is handling arrangements.