Two saddles now empty at Cowboys

The model horse and wagon in front of the Cowboys convenience store on U.S. 280 near the Village at Lee Branch help make the store distinctive, but the faces inside have been just as recognizable to regular customers.

And two of those faces are now gone.

The station owner, Alan Kidd, died on Oct. 13 – the day after he was in a motorcycle wreck with his wife, Michelle.

And the store manager who had worked there for nine years, Cheryl Plattner, died of a heart attack just a month before.

News of their deaths stunned many frequent customers and vendors, said Cheryl’s daughter, Kristie Plattner, who also works at the store.

“So many people coming in are just in total disbelief,” Kristie said. “Everybody’s sad. It’s a total shock.”

Kidd and Cheryl Plattner knew a lot of people, and many didn’t know they had passed until they got to the store and heard it from employees, Kristie said.

“We’ve had people break down and cry over it,” she said. “You never really know how many people care about somebody until something like this happens.”

“A lot of people have said it’s too odd to have so much tragedy in one place … To lose both of them in a month’s time, it’s really tough on everybody,” Kristie added.

The Plattners and Kidds have worked together so long that they’re kind of like family, Kristie said.

Alan Kidd stayed with Kristie in the hospital when Cheryl was there and came back to the house with her and her stepfather after Cheryl died, she said.

“Alan was really a great guy,” she said. “He knew everybody.” 

And even if he didn’t know someone, he wouldn’t hesitate to strike up a conversation. His employees described him as outgoing, kindhearted and very good to everyone who worked for him.

Autumn Smith, who worked for him the past two years at Cowboys, said he was a cut-up and always making goofy faces. However, his good nature didn’t stop him from taking care of business, she said.

 “If there was something wrong, there wasn’t no waiting on it; he was on top of it,” Smith said.

Andrea May, manager of the Jack Rabbit Texaco that Kidd owned at 2614 18^th Place South in Homewood said he was always enthusiastic about the things he loved: his daughter Chloe, motorcycles and his farm in Harpersville.

Kidd enjoyed taking his daughter to horse shows and rodeos, and raced motorcycles and was a Porsche driving instructor at Barber Motorsports Park. He also loved taking motorcycle trips with friends, and sport fishing and hunting with his brothers and friends.

He was an inventor and held the patent to the “trash can caddy,” a device that people can hook up to a vehicle trailer hitch to haul trash cans to the road. He also dabbled in honey farming but it didn’t turn out too well, Kristie said. 

“He said they were always stinging him.”

Cheryl Plattner was very close to her daughter. In addition to both working at Cowboys, they vacationed and spent much of their free time together.

“She was an amazing person. She was strong. She was giving, kind,” her daughter said. “I can honestly say I’ve got to be one of the luckiest women in the world to have had a mother and a role model such as herself. She taught me what it was like to be a good mother.”

Smith said when she came to Cowboys, Cheryl had always treated her like part of the family.

Cheryl loved animals and being outside. She and her husband, Mark Mosteller, cared for three dogs, a rabbit and a number of stray cats. But the joy of her life was her grandkids, 8-year-old Ryan and 2-year-old Chyanne. Cheryl would leave after a full workday at Cowboys and spend her evenings with the kids until Kristie got home from her own shift at the convenience store.

Cheryl also for three years participated in the Muscular Dystrophy Association lockup, in which she was “arrested” by the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office. The Cowboys store had to raise money for her “bail,” with the money going toward muscular dystrophy research. One year, she raised $2,500 from Cowboys customers in a week.

“She cared about everybody and everything,” Kristie said. “I mean, it didn’t matter if it was animal or human, if anything was in need … she was there.”