FAIRMONT – The customer stopped, looked twice and gave a self-conscious grin.
“I’m sorry – what?” he said.
Casey Stedman’s smile was more dazzling.
“I said, ‘you’re just gonna have to put your money away, sir. No charge today.’”
“Are you sure?”
“I sure am.”
So went the order of commerce Tuesday morning, at Yann’s Hot Dogs, Fairmont’s quintessential hot dog stand.
The free hot dogs were in honor of the Rev. D.D. Meighen, Fairmont’s quintessential clergyman, community activist and cable access sojourner who died June 23, 2025, after a lengthy illness.
Meighen was known just as much for TV 19, the cable network he founded, as he was for his church work across north-central West Virginia – which included a stint as West Virginia University’s campus minister in the 1970s.
With Tuesday marking the first anniversary of his death, his family chose to honor him in a fun, Fairmont way.
“Yep,” his son Chris said. “Yann dogs. I know Dad’s looking down, loving this.”
The Meighen family bought the first 100 hot dogs of the day for a host of pleasantly surprised patrons who frequent the business, which has occupied the same spot at the end of the High Level Bridge for 99 years.
D.D., who covered meetings, forums and roundtables for his network, had a signature signoff: “Take care and blessing,” he’d say.
Chris Meighen wanted people doing that Tuesday.
“Enjoy some Yann dogs on Dad,” he said. “Then go pay it forward.”
Paying it forward was a hallmark of D.D. Meighen’s ministry.
That, and telling stories at the kitchen table, opposed to delivering sermons from the pulpit.
He was fresh out of divinity school when he moved with two needy families in West Virginia – one in Marshall County, then another in Fayette County – to highlight the scourge of generational poverty across Appalachia.
“No one ‘chooses’ to live like this,” said the minister, who worked outside jobs to contribute to their households in exchange for telling their stories, via his notebook and camera lens.
Tuesday, for the most part, was just another day at the grill for Yann’s.
Russell Yann, who had worked there as a kid, was the son of Tony, the hot dog patriarch who first opened its doors in 1927.
Russell was celebrated for his comically cranky manner and “no ketchup” directive.
He died five years ago and was behind the counter almost to the end.
The place continues to be known for its spicy sauce, and Cathy Galambus, Russell’s daughter, only received the recipe after her dad’s passing.
She took over the place after his health began failing.
Fresh ingredients rule and chocolate milk is still the standard, requisite drink – which you’re definitely going to need, to cool the fire of the sauce, longtime patrons say.
The staff, meanwhile, includes the aforementioned Casey, one of Russell’s granddaughters who is working there while she considers law school.
“We’re family,” she said. “Our customers are family.”
Customers did talk about loved ones in the hospital and others who had moved away when they came in to pick up their orders.
“If you’re in a hurry,” so reads one of the signs behind the counter, “you’re in the wrong place.”
True to that credo, Tony Starkey took his time talking to Chris about D.D., whom he got to know as a kid through church league basketball and other endeavors.
“D.D. didn’t ‘preach’ to you,” he said. “He talked to you. He had this way of drawing everybody in.”
With that, Starkey gathered his hot dogs and went forth.
