One of Wichita’s best-known restaurant regulars, scribes has died at age 89
If you ever ate at Doo-Dah Diner, there’s a good chance you saw or even befriended Richard Holmes.
For years, he was an almost-daily presence at the restaurant, 206 E. Kellogg, where he’d sit on a stool at the counter and enjoy his favorite dishes while chatting with the staff and customers who happened to sit down near him. He loved talking to people, and he famously recorded his encounters at the diner in a series of “Counter Chats” he wrote about those he met.
Holmes, who was known not only for his Doo-Dah Diner celebrity but also for riding his giant tricycle all round town, died on Thursday.
He was 89.
Holmes, a retired Boeing computer programmer, had for at least seven years dined at Doo-Dah every day it was open except for Wednesdays, when he’d go to The Beacon. He knew all the Doo-Dah staff by name and was allowed to keep special condiments behind the counter.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first hit and restaurants were shut down, Holmes missed his diner family and would ride his giant tricycle to Patrick and Timirie Shibley’s family home several times a week.
He never returned to the diner, even after it reopened, out of caution. But he would still ride past, knock on the kitchen windows and wave at his friends before peddling on.
In October, Holmes — who lived alone in the family home he grew up in — fell and hurt his shoulder and was admitted to a rehabilitation center. The day before he was to be released, he contracted COVID-19 and was sent to quarantine. He was about to be released back to his regular room when he fell again and broke two vertebrae, said his niece, Tricia Holmes.
After that, his health continued to decline, and he eventually developed pneumonia, said Tricia Holmes, who Wichitans know from her Holmes-Made Salsa line and from her work with the Kansas Grown Farmers Market.
“His poor body had had enough,” she said.
Tricia Holmes said her uncle never married or had children but he had many adopted grandchildren all over town, including among the Shibley family and the staff at Doo-Dah Diner. He was brilliant, she said, a mathematical genius and a master bridge player. Until the pandemic hit, he was still playing bridge five days a week in Parklane Shopping Center and even authored a bridge column for a local bridge newsletter.
She said her uncle insisted he did not want a funeral but agreed that it would be appropriate for his family and Doo-Dah friends to get together for a meal there in his honor.
Timirie Shibley said she was able to visit Richard in the hospital in recent days and even brought him some of his favorite diner food.
“He always told me he was my backup husband if something ever happened to Patrick,” she said. “He always stopped me from doing whatever I was doing to introduce me to the customers he was chatting with. He made all the employees feel special, and he loved getting to know them. He was family.”
This story was originally published February 18, 2021 at 1:00 PM.
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