Rosie Woods moves from table to table at Rosie’s Restaurant, greeting regulars and first-time customers alike, sometimes pausing to straighten one of her many paintings on the wall. For nearly 40 years, the Woodland restaurant has been both her workplace and her gallery.
Rosie opened the first Rosie’s Restaurant in 1985 and eventually operated four locations, including three in Vancouver, before consolidating operations at Woodland’s single location. It is owned by her daughter, Carol, while Rosie continues to manage day-to-day operations and help with supplies. The walls tell their own story, lined with Rosie’s landscape paintings and photographs taken by her husband, LeRoy Woods, including images of Mount St. Helens erupting in 1980.
Rosie and LeRoy have been married 69 years, having married in 1957, two months after meeting. They met by chance in Roseburg, Oregon, a meeting Rosie still recalls with humor…