
Belinda Tacner helped open Fremont location in 1974
Much has changed in the five decades since Fremont resident Belinda Tacner was hired and first walked into a new, yet somewhat unknown restaurant concept that was being prepared to open in 1974.
That new restaurant was Fremont’s first McDonald’s, and that first day of work in April 1974 was the beginning of a 50-year career at the iconic American fast food eatery for Tacner.
On Wednesday, April 24, Tacner was honored for her five decades of work at Fremont’s McDonald’s by the current owners of the franchise on 23rd Street, receiving a round of applause from colleagues and praise from Steve Leonard, owner of Leonard management, the company that owns the Fremont location.
“It’s kind of, you know, just, it’s just something I’ve been doing for so long. Everybody says, why don’t you retire? And I said, well, what am I going to do? I don’t have any hobbies, you know,” Tacner said. “And this is what I tell people — I work for my sanity and my husband’s health.”
Tacner said her first role at McDonald’s in 1974 was as a dishwasher on the 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. lunch shift, which she said allowed her to do her motherly duties in the mornings and evenings while earning some spare cash at lunchtime to help her family.
“Back then, they had women doing (the lunch shift), so that was always nice. It gets you out of the house, gets you some money,” she said.
In the mid-1990s, she was promoted to an assistant manager role, which she still holds today at the modern, digitally-driven iteration of the classic hamburger joint.
As for why she’s stayed with the company and job for five decades, Tacner has a simple reason.
“It’s just the people, I mean, you know, to interact with them and stuff, and the people you work with. They’re special,” she said.
In the first years of the new McDonald’s in Fremont, Tacner said, “we only had Big Macs, Quarterpounders, hamburgers and cheeseburgers.”
“I don’t even know if we had filet then. And we didn’t have a drive-thru either,” she said.
The staff also calculated the costs of orders in their minds and wrote orders on a dry erase board. Now, there are WiFi-connected self-serve ordering kiosks and a sleek, modern art-designed interior.
When it comes to the menu, in the decades since she began working, the restaurant has added breakfast menu items and vastly expanded its drinks menu, too, to include specialty coffee concoctions and other goodies like a range of milkshake flavors and seasonal tweaks to tantalize taste buds.
Tacner said she does not know the exact number of Big Macs she has eaten in 50 years as an employee, noting that she “doesn’t eat a whole lot of Big Macs.”
Her favorite menu item is the the crispy chicken sandwich, which she said has “a great taste.”
Leonard Management owns more than 30 McDonald’s in four Midwestern states, including Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota and South Dakota. Steve Leonard was accompanied by co-owners Blake Zogleman, his son-in-law, and his son, Nate Leonard, for the ceremony.
The Leonards bought the Fremont McDonald’s in 1994, 20 years after it opened and Tacner was hired as a part-time worker.
During his presentation, Steve said one in eight Americans have had a job at a McDonald’s at some point in their lives, and that factoid led the company to produce the historic “1 in 8” varsity letterman jacket. He presented the fancy duds to Tacner as attendees cheered.
Steve Leonard said he was proud of Tacner’s dedication and long service to the company, noting she is a shining example of both the dedication of workers to McDonald’s and his company’s effort to support their staffs across several states.
“She started in 1974 setting up the restaurant. She’s been working for McDonald’s for 50 years,” Steve said. “This is absolutely wonderful. This shows the commitment in our people we have and the commitment they have to us.”
As the ceremony wound down, Tacner hugged fellow employees from the past and present. She said her only comment to Fremonters who’ve seen her smiling face at the restaurant for 50 years was “thanks for coming in and keep coming in.”