Parade royalty longtime business and community leaders
Steve and Marka Marqueson were the King and Queen.
Two longtime Columbia Falls residents were the king and queen of the Night of Lights Parade this year.
Steve and Marka Marquesen were nominated for the royalty position to start out the annual event by Tom Countryman of the Columbia Falls Lions Club.
Marka taught seventh and eighth grade literature and history for 33 years at the Columbia Falls Junior High, retiring in 2008. Steve bought the Nite Owl Restaurant in January 1979 from Jean England and added the renowned Back Room in 1984.
The couple has been together for 39 years. They met at the Blue Moon Nite Club in Columbia Falls. Marka recalled a fellow teacher dragged her out one night because she was being a “stick in the mud.”
Charlotte Sapa, the co-owner of the bar, suggested she dance with Steve. They hit it off and the rest is history.
Marka grew up in Roundup but moved to the Flathead with her boyfriend at the time who was an attorney. Steve grew up in the Minneapolis, Minnesota area and had a career with General Mills when he decided a corporate job wasn’t for him. He had a background in accounting as well, but no real experience in restaurants.
But back then, the Nite Owl, which was founded in 1955, was a 24/7 restaurant and they both worked long hours at the establishment, doing everything from washing dishes to busing tables and cooking. It wasn’t even closed for holidays. The aluminum plant ran all the time as did lumber mills. They used to provide meals for aluminum plant employees. They tried to close one Christmas, Marka recalled, but they couldn’t find the key to lock the door, so they backed a rig up to it to keep anyone from getting in.
In the beginning, the VFW was right behind the Nite Owl and when its lease came up, Steve bought the building and turned it into the Back Room. Over the years the restaurants, which run with separate kitchens, have been remodeled extensively.
The Back Room’s famous ribs came about a year after Marquesen bought the place, after he found a smoker in Minneapolis.
“The town has been great to us,” the Marquesens said.
They said the Night of Lights honor was fun.
“It was nice to be asked, but a little embarrassing,” they said.
Steve has two sons from a previous marriage, Jay, who has been the manager of the restaurants for the past 15 years and Nick, who is the groundskeeper at the Missoula Country Club.