Momma Inez is honored by Nevada for life’s work

The woman Halfway Club customers know as Momma Inez was honored Wednesday with a Lifetime Achievement in Small Business award by the state Department of Business and Industry.

Gov. Brian Sandoval presented Inez Casale with the plaque, telling an audience of more than 500 at the Grand Sierra Resort that “I’m a great customer.”

B&I Director Bruce Breslow told the crowd Casales began working at the Halfway Club — so named because when it opened, it was in the gap between Reno and Sparks — when it opened in 1937. She was 10.

“She still makes the raviolis every day; she makes the sauce,” he said.

Breslow said Halfway Club has been in business continuously since.