Iowa 80 Truckstop co-owner passes
Carolyn Cusac Moon, the longtime co-owner of the iconic Iowa 80 Truckstop has died.
Moon, 81, of Davenport, Iowa, passed away Thursday, May 4, at Genesis East Hospital, according to her obituary notice. She and her late husband, William “Bill” Moon, bought the Iowa 80 Truckstop in 1965. The family has operated it continuously since then. For 50 years she worked at the Iowa 80 Truckstop and Cat Scale as chairman of the board, and chief information officer until December 2016.
According to the obituary, Moon was born March 13, 1936, in Oklahoma, before her family eventually relocated to Springfield, Mo. While there, she graduated from Central High School, and from what was then known as Southwest Missouri State University, with a degree in mathematics.
After college she worked at the Boeing Co. in Wichita, as an engineering programmer. The obituary states she was the only woman in the engineering department. Her job was very much like the women from the recent movie “Hidden Figures.” She was frequently the only woman in the room and programmed a gigantic mainframe computer to solve engineering problems mainly for the B-52.
While in Wichita, she met and married Bill, who worked at Standard Oil at the time. They moved to Kansas City to start a family and Carolyn became a homemaker. In 1965, Carolyn moved with Bill and her two young children to Walcott, Iowa, to purchase and operate the Iowa 80 Truckstop. After a third child, Carolyn returned to the work that she loved as chief computer programmer for their business. Moon was also a founding member of the National Association of Truck Stop Operators, winning their Distinguished Member Award in 2003.
Visitors to the Iowa 80 Trucking Museum who have marvelled at the large collection of antique toys have Carolyn to thank for world-class collection. She and Bill collected antique toys together and loved traveling the country looking for treasures to decorate their businesses.
