Whether you prefer dipped cones or Blizzards, many ice cream lovers flock to Dairy Queen in the summer. But did you know the oldest operating Dairy Queen is in Illinois?
In 1938, Sherwood “Sherb” Noble, owner of Sherb’s Ice Cream in Kankakee, became the first to sell soft-serve ice cream, which had been invented by father-and-son team J.F. and Alex McCullough. Their trial run was an all-you-can-eat sale for 10 cents at Sherb’s store. Selling more than 1,600 servings in two hours, soft-serve became an instant success.
According to Joe Rintelman, Noble Dairy Queen management consultant, after perfecting the machine, Noble and the McCulloughs opened the first Dairy Queen in Joliet in June of 1940. In 1941, Noble opened a drive-up Dairy Queen, a novel concept at that time where people park and walk up to a window to order, in Aurora. Noble was drafted into World War II but returned to continue opening Dairy Queens. In 1947 he opened his first Kankakee store, which remains open today.
The Noble family owns and operates the West Kankakee DQ, now the oldest in the state, along with eight other locations.
To learn more, visit facebook.com/OriginalDQ.
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