How the Grateful Dead saved the Springfield Creamery

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — When Chuck and Sue Kesey began the Springfield Creamery in the 1960s, growth was a bit sporadic. When they really hit tough times in 1972, Chuck turned to his brother to help.

His brother was Ken Kesey, who knew The Grateful Dead very well. Among other works, Ken Kesey wrote “One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.”

Chuck asked them to do a benefit concert for Springfield Creamery — and that’s how the Grateful Dead helped save the business.

“I was nearly 11 years old then, and it was 1972, and my parents had come upon hard times,” said Sheryl Kesey Thompson the co-owner and vice president of marketing for the company. “They had taxes that were due. And my dad decided to reach out to the Grateful Dead and he had a connection to the Grateful Dead through his brother Ken Kesey, who was a writer. And so my dad went down and asked him, ‘Hey, will you do a benefit for the creamery?’ And they said yes.”

In less than a month, the Grateful Dead performed at a benefit concert just west of Eugene.

“I think it was 27 days between when they said yes and when 20,000 people came to a field in Veneta,” Thompson said. “And so it was, when we look back on it, when my brother and I look back on it as adults now, we’re like, I can’t believe that you guys went from yogurt makers to concert promoters in 27 days.”

The Kesey family is forever grateful the band agreed to do the benefit concert.

“The Grateful Dead were so very, very generous. And I think in the end there was like $15,000 made, which was, or they donated $15,000 to us that got us over the hump and that’s all we needed,” Thompson said. “And that’s really a fork in the road for our company.”

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