<Tr> <Td_colspan="2"> Footnotes / references </Td> </Tr> <P> Casey's General Stores, Inc., is a chain of convenience stores in the Midwestern and Southern United States, primarily within the states of Iowa, Arkansas, Illinois, Indiana, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Kansas, Oklahoma, Nebraska, Ohio, Minnesota, Michigan, Tennessee, Kentucky, and Wisconsin . The company is headquartered in Ankeny, Iowa, a suburb of Des Moines . </P> <P> In 1959, Donald Lamberti leased a service station in Des Moines, Iowa, from his father . After successfully remodeling the station into a convenience store and operating it for nine years, his gasoline supplier and friend, Kurvin C. (K.C.) Fish, suggested that he purchase the Square Deal Oil Company, a service station available for sale in Boone, Iowa . Lamberti followed Fish's advice and purchased the station, which he renamed "Casey's" after Fish and as with his leased store converted the station into a convenience store . The logo on the Boone store is the same logo used today by the Casey's chain . </P> <P> The Boone store (located in a town of only 12,500) did well, so Lamberti decided to see if he could duplicate his success . He built another store in Creston, Iowa (population 7,000) and that store did well also . Lamberti became more ambitious and decided to open a store from scratch in the even smaller town of Waukee, Iowa (population 1,500 at the time). The Waukee store proved to be the most successful of the three, so Lamberti decided to purchase and open more stores, concentrating on towns of less than 5,000 population (a variation on the tactic used in the early success of Wal - Mart). </P>

Where was the first casey's store built