This audio feature was produced using voice memos sent in response to a community engagement post KBIA made on its Instagram account on April 1. That same day, the Columbia Missourian posted the print article featured below.
Leigh Anne Lockhart, the beloved business owner and founder of Main Squeeze on Ninth Street, died Monday at 61.
Over nearly three decades in Columbia, she became widely known as a tireless advocate for diversity, the environment, women's rights, sustainable living and vegetarian food.
Lockhart settled in Columbia in 1996 and quickly introduced fresh juice and smoothies to the city by occupying space in a corner of Lakota on Ninth Street. It was so popular that within a year she had expanded into a cafe two doors down.
For a quarter-century Lockhart ran Main Squeeze with a mission to promote plant-based eating and serve made-to-order salads, sandwiches, hot dishes and baked goods.
Those 25 years allowed her to gather a strong community of devoted customers, workers, friends and colleagues.
Shannon Diaz was one of them. She worked for Lockhart years ago when she was 18 and never dropped the connection.
“It was meaningful enough that we forged a lifelong friendship, really the kind of friendship where you could not talk to each other for a little while, and then pick back up as if no time had passed,” Diaz said.
Lockhart closed the kitchen in 2023 to open a market and refill store that sold sustainable goods such as bamboo utensils, recycled paper journals and biodegradable supplies to reduce the reliance on plastic.
Her business closed in December 2024 after Main Squeeze was sold to John and Amanda Gilbreth. John Gilbreth had known Lockhart for 20 years as a restaurant owner, neighbor, business associate and friend.
“It’s a great loss,” he said Tuesday. “She (was) a fierce person. She stood for her beliefs.”
Lockhart also worked closely with Eduardo Crespi, director and founder of Centro Latino de Salud, a non-profit community resource center on Garth Avenue.
Crespi said he admired Lockhart for acting on her principles, including fighting for minorities and women’s rights.
“Leigh supported Centro Latino’s mission wholeheartedly,” he said.
She played a crucial role in the development of the People’s Diner, one of Centro Latino’s programs, he said, applying her expertise in vegan and vegetarian cuisine.
To help raise money for Centro Latino, tamales were temporarily placed on the Main Squeeze menu as an extension of Tamale Tuesday, an idea of Lockhart's to boost Centro Latino operations.
“She had the ability to see people through their soul,” Crespi said. “She was a beautiful soul.”
Longtime friend and artist Lisa Bartlett posted a memorial video on Facebook this week that showcased Lockhart throughout the years. She and Lockhart met almost two decades ago at Ragtag Cinema.
“I’ll never forget meeting this amazing dynamic woman,” Bartlett said. “From then on, we’ve been very close friends throughout the years.”
Both Bartlett and Lockhart shared a love of art and collecting.
“She wasn’t an artist, but she really loved the idea of upcycling things,” Bartlett said. “Her forte was taking things apart and then organizing them.”
Morgan Inez Smith, another close friend, was working at Stephens College when she met Lockhart. A vegetarian, Smith said she was delighted when Main Squeeze opened.
“I met Leigh, and we just hit it off," Smith said. "We realized we lived pretty close to each other. I didn’t go over to her house often, but she always had dogs around.”
Smith's memories are full of examples that demonstrate Lockhart's care for others.
“She was the kind of person that if somebody was hungry, they wouldn’t be for long if they were near her,” she said.
KBIA would like to extend its gratitude to Ben Hume, Molly Hume, Lynn Rossy and Lesli Tignor Guzman for their contributions to the Culture Desk's first community engagement project. Below is a transcript of the audio feature.
Main Squeeze and its founder Leigh Lockhart have been pillars in Columbia for decades. Under new ownership, the restaurant faces significant changes. After Lockhart's passing last month, KBIA reached out to the community for memories of Main Squeeze and its creator. KBIA's Robin Crouch presents these memories, as Columbia looks forward to next chapter of Main Squeeze.
Robin Crouch: Ben Hume has known Lockhart since her early days in Columbia. He remembers helping her to get a job at local restaurant Murry’s before she opened Main Squeeze
Ben Hume: Leigh came into Murry's during a day shift. It was quiet. She walked up to the bar and chatted. Eventually, she said she wanted a job. I told Bill or Gary that they ought to hire her. It wasn't long before she opened the tiny juice bar in the window bay of Lakota Coffee Company. Main Squeeze was next. I spent a few hours helping prepare that building and put my handprint in the drywall mud. Every interaction with her was positive and loving.
Crouch: Molly Hume grew up going to Main Squeeze. She remembers the restaurant’s fun and comfortable atmosphere.
Molly Hume: Whenever I went to Main Squeeze, the feelings that I got were love and home and wholesomeness from the food to just how the space was made. I loved the handprints on the walls and the woven seating covers and the chalkboard that was customized for their special food items, especially the smoothies. As a kid, it was so much fun to go in there and say the craziest name for a smoothie and get something incredibly delicious and, like, jam packed full of fruits and veggies. It was just something I'm going to miss a lot.
Crouch: Lynn Rossy was a friend of Lockhart’s and a Main Squeeze patron. She remembers her vibrant personality and the love that went into everything she did.
Lynn Rossy: The main ingredient at Main Squeeze was love. Leigh always came out from behind the counter at Main Squeeze to give me a big, breasty hug. Then she would follow with a joke that she had heard recently, or a bit of fun gossip. There were usually a number of cuss words passed back and forth, and a common agreement that we knew best, no matter what the topic. Main Squeeze was Columbia's version of Cheers, except serving up vegetables instead of alcohol. Goodness for all, indeed.
Crouch: Lesli Tignor Guzman went to high school with Lockhart, and decided to visit her years later.
Tignor Guzman: My friend Kim Loomis, better known as "Kimmy Loo," and I decided to visit Leigh at her cafe. On the way, we realized we were starving, but we were also a little skeptical about vegan food. So, just to be safe, we stopped at Shakespeare's Pizza beforehand, thinking we might be facing some unusual concoctions. When we walked into her bright, cheerful café, Leigh greeted us with that big smile and told us to sit down, she's going to feed us. First came smoothies: chia seeds, flax milk. We looked at each other like, "Help," but to our surprise, they were actually okay. Then she kept bringing out small portions of different menu items, one after another. We thought we'd just order something simple, but no. The food kept coming and we were absolutely stuffed. We had already eaten pizza, but the pride and love she had, it warmed our hearts.
