DI-ANN’S FLOWERS AND GIFTS

Cecil and Stella Baldwin bought the Hardware Inventory from Wes James in August 1971. That business was located in the old Lowe Building on the southwest corner on intersection of Highway 97 and Main Street in Mullen, Nebraska. Cecil and Stella were in the hardware business 10 years, at which time they sold it to Joe and Deanna lsom who moved the business across the street one block northeast of the Lowe Building.

“Di-Ann's Flowers'' was started in the summer of 1973 by Diane Baldwin and her sister Annette Winberg. The two sisters put their first names together and came up with “Di-Ann''. This husiness was located directly across the street east of the hardware store, in the Ray Henry Sexton building. (Diane Baldwin is Cecil and Stella Baldwin's daugh-ter-in-law.) Diane and Annette were in the flower shop one year when they sold the business to Cecil and Stella Baldwin in Dec. 1974. Cecil and Stella, at this time, moved the flower shop business in the northwest corner of the hardware store. They operated both businesses out of the same store for 7 years. Due to Cecil's failing health they then sold the hardware business to the Joe lsoms and moved the flower shop to its present location, (306 West 1st Street), which is directly across the street north of the Hooker County Courthouse in Mullen. The flower shop is in a room on the east side of their house. Stella has regular hours but has been known to make up arrangements or make a sale late at night and on Sundays. In the flower shop you can purchase fresh cut flowers and house plants, funerals and any other occasions desired. She also sells household wares and Watkins products. Fresh flowers are shipped from Denver, Colo. to North Platte, Nebr. by bus. The 142 mile round trip to North Platte has to be made to pick up the flowers at the bus depot. The freight is high but this is her only means of getting fresh cut flowers. The Nebraska weather during the winter months had not always cooperated with the flower runs.

Due to his lengthy illness Cecil passed away Mar. 9, 1984. Stella continues to run the flower shop at the present time.