Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City opened the Love Family Women’s Center to patients on April 7. The facility is named and partially funded by the Love family, owners of Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores.
- Love’s Travel Stops & Country Stores Inc. is No. 14 on CSP's 2023 Top 202 ranking of convenience-store chains by store count.
When the hospital started its campaign for a new women’s center in December 2019, shortly before the COVID-19 pandemic started, matriarch of the Love family Judy Love was on the Mercy Health Foundation board. She and her late husband, Tom Love, gave a $10 million donation to kick off the project. In partnership with co-chair and former state first lady Cathy Keating, they helped raise more than $30 million from Oklahoma families and businesses.
“Mom and Cathy were very involved in co-chairing a silent campaign to raise funds for this women’s center,” said Jenny Love Meyer, Judy’s daughter and chief culture officer of Love’s. “Trying to raise $40 million during normal times would have been a lofty goal, but COVID changed a lot and only three months into the campaign. We are very proud of them for dedicating themselves to raising an historic amount of money during a time of economic uncertainly and amid a global pandemic.”
The Love Family Women’s Center provides advanced medicine and exceptional care for Oklahoma women, Love’s said. The new 175,000-square-foot center is a four-story building on the Mercy Hospital Oklahoma City campus with 30 patient rooms to accommodate a significant increase in child births. Over the last 10 years, the hospital has had a 34% increase in childbirths, with nearly 4,000 births each year. The women’s’ center will increase the hospital’s delivery capacity by 40%, Love’s said.
“Our family’s roots run deep in Oklahoma and so does Mercy’s roots with the Sisters of Mercy and their commitment to serving Oklahomans,” Love Meyer said. “This project builds on both legacies and reinforces our standard of supporting the communities in which we live and work. As the only remaining family-owned and operated travel stop company in the industry, it’s wonderful this center is opening during our 60th anniversary as we look to investing in and supporting future generations.”
Oklahoma City-based Love’s is celebrating its 60th anniversary in 2024. The travel center chain opened its first store in Watonga, Oklahoma, in 1964, when owners Tom and Judy Love were looking for a way to support their family. Today, the travel center chain has more than 640 locations in 42 states, and it plans to add 20 to 25 new locations in 2024.
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