Ione Battistone, widow of Sambo’s founder, dies at 89
By SALLY CAPPON
South Coast Beacon

Services were held Monday for Ione Battistone, a longtime Santa Barbara resident and widow of the co-founder of the giant Sambo’s Restaurant chain.

She died Nov. 25. She was 89.

The daughter of Danish immigrants, she was born in Irene, S.D., on Jan. 18, 1914. After graduating from Irene High School and working for a time in Sioux Falls, S.D., and Minneapolis, she moved to Glendale with her brother. She became a waitress at the Blue Belle Café where her future husband, Sam Battistone, was a cook. For a time during World War II, she worked in a parachute factory near Burbank.

Moving to Santa Barbara in 1947, she and her husband opened a restaurant, Sammy’s Grill, at 511 State St. In 1957 they purchased a closed restaurant on Cabrillo Boulevard which they refurbished and renamed Sambo’s, combining the names of Sam and their partner, Newell Bohnett.

Mrs. Battistone worked at Sammy’s Grill and early Sambo’s restaurants while raising three children, Sam, Dona and John Roger.

Sambo’s eventually expanded to over 1,200 restaurants nationwide. Sam Jr. opened restaurant No. 7 in Medford, Ore., while Roger opened restaurant No. 100 in Goleta in 1969.

Sam Jr. is a former owner of the Utah Jazz and currently owns a chain of sports memorabilia stores. He, Roger and their sister, Dona Kirby are trustees of the Battistone Foundation which provides low cost housing for seniors.

Ione Battistone was a 50-year member of First United Methodist Church, where services were held.

She was remembered for her “niceness’’ by her son Roger. “You never heard a foul word,’’ he said.

She is survived by her sons Sam and his wife Nan, of Las Vegas, and Roger and his wife Cristina of Santa Barbara; her daughter Dona Kirby and her husband Steve of Vancouver, B.C.; a sister, Millicent Saunderson, Windham, N.H., 14 grandchildren and 10 great-grandchildren.

Burial was at Santa Barbara Cemetery.