For as long as I can remember there has always been a Dairy Queen in Italy. Every day the parking lot would be filled with cars while family members were enjoying Dairy Queen ice cream treats and good old hamburgers the only way Dairy Queen makes them.

As of Friday, December 31st, at the end of the business day, the doors of our Italy Dairy Queen will be closed. No more friendly faces serving up delicious blizzards and other “DQ” treats.

Shari Phillips (manager) said, “It is with a sad heart that the Dairy Queen of Italy will open its doors for the last time on Friday, December the 31st. After 24 years of running the family owned restaurant, the last four without her husband and partner Pic Mauldin (who passed away in July of ’06), Iva Mauldin has decided to retire and close the business. She is currently trying to sell the business as a Dairy Queen but due to the additional financial and modernization requirements set forth by American Dairy Queen she will not be able to operate the Dairy Queen store.”

Shari (Iva’s daughter) who has managed the store for her parents for the last ten years would like to thank the staff and their loyal customers that have patronized the Dairy Queen over the many years. “It is our hope that there will be another Dairy Queen in the near future for Italy. God bless and many thanks to you all,” said Iva Mauldin and Shari Phillips.

“It is very hard after thirty years of spending your life with Dairy Queen to just turn around and walk out. It is like walking out on a family you have helped build. Most of these people have been my friends and they have been my family,” Corky Wright (long term employee) tearfully explained.

There has been a Dairy Queen in Italy for over forty years. It is an end of an era. We will miss the “DQ”.