Mata Battye McGuire was married to Odell S. McGuire, a professor of geology who taught for 32 years at W&L. From Walt Koken's notes following Odell's death: "We took him up on his offer, invaded his household, and enjoyed the cooking of his wife Mata. She was more than just a faculty wife, and in their sleepy little town the stage was set for this couple and their three young children . . . to form the center of what was to become a major old-time music scene. . . . Mata opened the White Column Inn in Lexington, a restaurant which became the center of it all, providing both real and musical livelihoods to however many it could support, as cooks, wait staff, carpenters, old-time musicians and dancers. Mata seemed to be the queen bee, and musicians came from afar to live in the area."