From Deseret News archives:
Utahn keeps store going for 74 years
Except for three years during World War II, she's been waiting on customers in Sterling, a town of 300 located six miles south of Manti, continuously for 74 years.
She keeps "a goin'," she says, because she needs the income and loves the work.
"I love to work with people. I certainly do. I love to serve if I possibly can," she says. "And every doctor has urged me to go on as long as I could."
Thomas Grocery, a white frame building with a single gas pump out front, is on the west side of U.S. 89 about a half mile into town. She lives in a white cottage next door. The store is open six days per week, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. during the winter, and 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. during summer when the farmers are working late. Thomas covers most of those hours.
A heart attack, cancer, macular degeneration, a broken hip that required two surgeries, and two hospitalizations in the past five years haven't stopped her. Neither did her husband's sudden death.
Just after Pearl Harbor, the Thomases decided to go "up north" to work. Evan Thomas was among the workers who helped build Hill Air Force Base. The couple also worked nights at a cannery, processing food for the military.
When the war ended, they returned to Sterling, and Lillie's father asked them to take over his business. They took out a loan and built a new building across the street and north of her father's store. (The old store was later torn down.)
They furnished the store with counters out of Lillie's father's store some of which dated back to the previous owner. "Them counters is way, way over 100 years old, you bet they are," she says of the heavy wooden counters that still dominate the interior of the store.
The country store of the 1940s and 1950s was stocked with 50-gallon kegs of vinegar, 50-pound sacks of flour and 40-pound boxes of bananas from the Pacific Fruit and Produce Co. Thomas Grocery got its eggs from local farmers in trade for groceries.
Comments
- Tigers vs. Miners by the numbers 2:32 a.m.
- Springville vs. Dixie by the numbers 2:25 a.m.
- Wasatch vs. Juan Diego numbers 2:22 a.m.
- Mustangs vs. Tbirds by the numbers 2:02 a.m.
- Nuggets win after clock review 1:41 a.m.
- Robbery ends poorly for one suspect 1:20 a.m.
- Wednesday on TV 12:59 a.m.
- Integration is possible on TV 12:59 a.m.
- Herbert talks land issues in D.C. 12:59 a.m.
- Developer looking to buy RSL share 12:58 a.m.
- Utah group finds homes for orphans
- Pratt pleads not guilty to sex charges
- Y. tight ends talented tandem
- Jazz blow big lead, hang on
- Utes get extra motivation
- Senators want food tax restored
- Hair-pulling raises more questions
- Lobo land like home for BYU lineman
- BYU soccer incident still popular
- U. hopes to keep clicking
- House passes health care bill
265 - TCU showdown has big implications
188 - Lobo suspended
185 - Cougars crush hapless Cowboys
155 - Senators want food tax restored
152 - Utah Jazz fall apart against Kings
131 - TCU 4th in AP poll; U. 16th, Y. 22nd
119 - No 'backlash' for pioneers, gays analogy
105 - S.L. vote pending on gay protections
104 - Utes pound winless Lobos
89
Applebee's Neighborhood Grill & Bar restaurants nationwide will honor...
Meghan McCain, the daughter of former presidential candidate John...
Glad that he's finally going to be scouting how to beat TCU. Seems to...
Too anyone who whines about people who EARN high salaries; when was the last...
Don't know bout all that "Texas" stuff, but I'm here to tell you people, that...
Gorbachev was a brilliant leader and single most important individual in...
It buys votes from every irresponsible, lazy American in order to keep the...
My fear is the damage to the economy adding trillions of dollars to the...
I don't know, Ak can be horrible too, there are those times when he only...
Utah 24, TCU 21
You are so right about the BS of these 3 radio clowns!
And some of you out there could care less if we give up our freedoms as long...




You can be the first to comment on this story.