Louise Starkweather, 100, Will Be the Guest of Honor at Bridal Originals Reunion

Louise Starkweather, the First Lady of Bridal Originals fashions in Du Quoin before its closure in July 2002, will be the guest of honor during a holiday reunion at the Grecian Restaurant in Pinckneyville beginning at noon on Saturday, Nov. 24.

Now a resident of Oklahoma, Louise, age 100, will return to Du Quoin for this very special event. In fact, the reunion was timed to her return.

Louise was "forelady" (foreman) at the dress company, which sent thousands of high quality bridal gowns and special occasion dresses out into the world marketplace.

At one time the company employed upwards of 250 dressmakers in Du Quoin.

The company's owner, S.A.S.I. Corp. of Collinsville, shut down its last plant in 2006 after years of battling foreign competitors.

Bridal Originals was once a textile powerhouse that employed nearly 1,000 people at its former facilities in St. Louis and Belleville, Ill., before the Nania family sold it to a group of Philadelphia investors in 1985. The company closed its Du Quoin and Sparta plants in 2002 as it experienced stiff competition from imports. That competition accelerated in 2006 as a series of international quota agreements that had controlled the global textile and apparel industry for 40 years expired.