'Louie' khan Knifed To Death In Pakistan

Sheridan Press June 29, 1964

Zarif Khan, well known local figure, better known as "Louie", was murdered June 23 in Village Bara in West Pakistan.

Bill Harrison, Jr., local accountant received word June 24 that Mr.  Khan had been killed when he received a cablegram from his widow.  He then contacted his father, Congressman William Henry Harrison, who contacted the state department for a report and verification.  Congressman Harrison called this morning with the state department report verifying the death.

Mr. Khan was knifed by Sultan Khan, a distant relative, in a land dispute, according to the report.  The killing took place about 9 a.m. on June 23.  Sultan Khan is being held in jail and will be tried. The state department plans to have someone at the trial as much as possible, and will provide a transcript.

Village Bara is about 25 miles from Khyber Pass.  Bill Harrison, Jr., said Mr. Khan was about to return home.  In all his recent letters he indicted he would be coming back and to have things ready.  He left here July 5 of 1963.

He leaves his wife, Bibi Fatima Khan and six children.  The couple was married Dec. 5, 1952.  The children are Bibi Zarina, Fatima, Zarif, Jr., Nazir, Merriam, and Roenna.  They were placed in school in Pakistan.  Mr. Khan was a naturalized American citizen, and his children are American citizens. His widow is not.
 

Bill Harrison, Jr., said that Mr. Khanís family will stay in Pakistan until after the murder trial.  They are expected back here after the trial, however.  He has been buried in Pakistan, where Moslem rites were held.  His exact age is not known, but it is estimated he was in his 80's.

Mr. Khan landed at San Francisco on Oct. 28, 1907.  In 1908 he was in Lead and Deadwood, S.D., selling hamburgers.  In 1909, he was in Buffalo selling hamburgers and came to Sheridan on weekends to sell hamburgers.  On about Nov. 10, 1910 he moved to Sheridan.  When he first came here he had a cart he pushed up and down Sheridan's streets selling hamburgers from place to place.  Later he purchased the hamburger stand on Grinnell where he has since operated his business.  The stand is known as "Louieís".  Mr. Khan got the name "Louie" as a result of the purchase of the stand.  He purchased it from a German by that name.

Mr. Khan would never talk about himself much.  But it is known that during World War II hundreds of local servicemen received gifts from him in the form of checks, cash and cigarettes.  He was a member of one of the leading families of Pakistan.  On numerous occasions, when a Pakistanian official was visiting Washington, Mr. Khan would receive invitations to the White House.  He never accepted them.  He was related to the president of Pakistan and to other Pakistanian officials.

We'll Remember Louie

Sheridan Press June 30, 1964

We'll remember him because he had an unusual name, Zarif Khan.  Even in a community like ours where many nationalities are represented we'll remember the name.  Weíll remember him for his unpretentiousness and for his cordiality even if it was only a hello on the street in the morning.  We'll remember him most, however, as that increasingly rare example of the immigrant who came to America and via the unpretentious route of selling hamburgers made of himself an economic success.

Louie never spoke English well.  Nevertheless he could make and sell hamburgers. He sold them in South Dakota, in Buffalo and in Sheridan, which became his home. The longtime resident will not forget the sight of Louie and his cart, of Louie selling hamburgers from store to store, from door to door.  They will not forget the years he sold hamburgers from Louieís stand on Grinnell.  How many thousands
or millions of hamburgers did Louie make?  No one will ever know, but it was a good business and it was Louieís place in life.  He did well, and through prudent investment and saving, became successful financially.

We'll remember Louie because although he wasn't personally involved in World War II he remembered servicemen with gifts.  He was with them in spirit; these kids he'd sold hamburgers to.  We'll remember him because he was never boastful. He was shy.

 Few knew that he came from one of the important families of Pakistan. Few knew, how a man with a small hamburger stand, had managed to become such a financial success.  Louie lived quietly and unpretentiously in this community.

We'll remember him because he sometimes got upset over the stock market. Frequently during unsettled times in the market.  Louie would be the first in The Sheridan Press office to find out what the stock market had done.

And we'll remember him because he was an elderly man before he married and had a family.  He went back to his native land and returned to Sheridan with a bride. They were to have six children.  We don't think anyone will ever know how pleased Louie was when that first boy arrived.

It was a happy treat in later days to see Louie, his wife and children, or just Louie and his boy walking down Main street.  It was the same, never changing Louie.  The same cordiality, the same hello, the same unpretentious- ness.
We'll remember Louie because he was the American story all wrapped up in a package, because he was as deeply human as any of us, because he possessed a rarity no one else possessed.  We'll miss Louie because he gave us something to wonder and ponder about.  And the world still needs wonder and pondering.
 

The 'burger baron               Ridin' the Range with Red Fenwick

Empire Magazine August 9, 1964

Zarif Khan, wealthy Pakistani-American, better know around and about
Sheridan,
Wyo., and the Black Hills of South Dakota as "Hot Tamale Louie", is
no more.  He
was knifed to death the later part of June by a relative known in and about
Village Bara, Pakistan, as Sultan Khan.  They had a rhubarb over some
land there.

All this greatly perturbs many people at Sheridan because Khanís
untimely end at
somewhere around the age of 80, means Khanís hamburger joint may remain
closed
forever.  And it likewise perturbs some prominent New York gentlemen, but
for a
different reason.  Khanís passing means to the New York Stock Exchange the
loss
of a very well-heeled client whose company they used to enjoy on occasion,
so I
am told, at expensive corporation dinners.

Zarif khan was indeed a most unusual person.  Many times I sought but failed
to
trap Mr. Khan at Sheridan and learn the secret of his phenomenal financial
success.

A Pakistani with a German name
In noting his death, The Sheridan Press reported that Khan came to this
country
from Pakistan in 1907.  In 1908 he was in Lead and Deadwood, S. D., selling
hamburgers and tamales from a pushcart.  Occasionally he would portage his
cart
to Sheridan for business forays, selling hamburgers and tamales to the
cowboys
and others who throng that delightful cityís streets.

In 1910 he moved to Sheridan, became a naturalized citizen, and
opened the little
two-by-four hamburger stand on Grinnell St.  It became a sort of landmark
and a
monument to American opportunity and the ingenuity of one adopted citizen.

But Khan didnít talk much and it seemed shunned publicity.  Now as it
frequently
happens in the West, Zarif Khan inherited a nickname by accident.
His name never
was anything like "Louie", but the German from whom he bought the
hamburger stand
in Sheridan was so named, and the moniker sort of hung onto Zarif Khan.

Temple builder and mining investor
My old friend Ned Randolph, author, world traveler, and former cattle
operator in
Wyoming and Montana knew Khan quite well.  He says of him:  "He was a
charming
character, a noble in his own land, a member of the highest caste, next to
royalty.  He was quite rich and very generous and religious.  He built
several
(Moslem) temples in Pakistan.  He was a great investor in mining shares,
including literally thousands of shares of Lucky Friday (bought for
30 cents and
worth about $35 when the company merged recently with Hecia).  I understand
he
was very cordially received by the partners of J. P. Morgan & Co., when in
New
York, turned down invitations to the White House ? all for hamburgers, and
they
were good ones."

Iíd say they were actually million-dollar 'burgers, wouldnít you?
           Red