South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

South St. Louis County News

St. Louis Call Newspapers

Robert Quevreaux

Died: Monday, January 07, 2013

Age: 82

Robert “Bob” Quevreaux, 82, founder and owner of Country Squire Cleaners — one of the longest continuous-operating dry cleaners in St. Louis — and Sunset Tennis Center, died Jan. 7.

Mr. Quevreaux was a lifelong resident of St. Louis.

He was raised in an impoverished section of Webster Groves, known as “Little Arkansas,” so named by the town’s wealthier citizens who thought the residents’ “peculiar” habits of shooting and eating squirrel and wearing rags was a telltale sign of their hillbilly origins. Mr. Quevreaux attended Maplewood High School, where he distinguished himself as a linebacker on the football team as well as a standout member of the wrestling team.

He graduated from high school in 1948, winning a full scholarship to play football at Joplin Junior College, now Missouri Southern State University. Following college, he joined the Army, serving stateside as a paratrooper attached to the 101st Airborne Division.

Mr. Quevreaux’s first job after the military was driving a truck for a large dry cleaning and laundry service. After six months, he decided that running a laundry looked like it would be fairly easy and a lot of fun. With the help of a high school friend, Bob Striler, Mr. Quevreaux opened a dry cleaning business on the city’s near south side.

Within a year, he shuttered that store and moved his business to Sappington.

He renamed it Country Squire Cleaners, a name he hoped would resonate with the area’s up-and-coming residents. Over the next 50 years, Mr. Quevreaux expanded his dry cleaning business several times, eventually amassing eight stores. Today, Country Squire Cleaners has five locations and recently launched a pickup and delivery service for area companies.

In 1972, at a time when playing tennis was a favored pastime among young professionals, Mr. Quevreaux and Mr. Striler founded and built Sunset Tennis Center, one of only a few indoor tennis complexes in the St. Louis area. Shortly after opening, though, the center experienced a sharp decline in membership, the result of an abrupt and overall decline in the sport’s recreational popularity.

While similar complexes resorted to adding party rooms and bars to boost membership, Mr. Quevreaux made the strategic decision to mold Sunset Tennis into the region’s premier junior training center. The shift in programmatic emphasis — from recreational to training — proved immensely successful.

Sunset Tennis grew in size and prestige over the next 40 years, emerging as a nationally recognized training center for youth.

Survivors include four children, Aimee (Tony Wagner), Jolie, Andy and Noel (Robert Rosenberger); and four grandchildren, who were as the perpetual light of his life. Mr. Quevreaux was preceded in death by his wife of 44 years, Pearl Quevreaux; and son, Tom Quevreaux.

The family was served by American Mortuary.

Those wishing to make a memorial contribution in Mr. Quevreaux’s name may do so through the Open Door Animal Sanctuary, P.O. Box 870, House Springs, Mo. 63051 or the Katy Trail State Park, 5901 S. High-way 163, Columbia, Mo. 65203.