Longtime restaurateur Jay Prothro, founder of the eponymous Jay’s Bar-B-Q, died Sunday after a brief illness. He was 86.
Prothro opened the first Jay’s Bar-B-Q in the mid-1950s in a former hot dog stand on Government Street, and it quickly became a beloved neighborhood institution. It later moved down the street to a new location, and other Jay’s outlets opened throughout the city. Though Prothro retired more than 30 years ago, the restaurants he founded are still operated by his family and friends, who remember him today as a tireless worker and a people person with an indomitable spirit.
“He would still come in to work and counsel us,” says son-in-law Rick Newton, who operates the Jay’s Bar-B-Q restaurant on Sherwood Forest Boulevard with his wife and son. “But he would spend more time talking to people than working—and that was okay with us.”
Newton says Prothro’s wife of 66 years died exactly six months ago, a factor he believes contributed to his father-in-law’s death.
“Technically, he died of a stroke,” Newton says. “But he also died of a broken heart.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Read a 2014 feature on Jay’s Bar-B-Q and its place in the community.
