Erma Erwin's 90th birthday reminds us of a great local family

Perry County's First Lady of flowers turns '90' on Monday, March 30. Erma Eileen Erwin, who retired in 2005 and closed the Pinckneyville flower shop--Erwin's Florist--soon after is being honored by family and friends with a card shower.

You can send your best wishes to Mrs. Erwin at 4681 Red Bud Lane, Pinckneyville, Ill. 62274.

Mrs. Erwin retired from the floral business in January 2005 and Erwin the Florist in Pinckneyville was closed after 64 years.

The shop was a sister business to the original Erwin the Florist that was opened in Du Quoin in 1925.

Erwin's began when Wendell Erwin's parents opened up greenhouses and sold vegetables on Rt. 51 from a little one-room shop that stood for decades just north of the Sunfield wye. Eventually the Erwins switched from vegetables to flowers and opened their first Du Quoin location in 1925.

Erma Erwin, who operated the Pinckneyville shop, married into the family on November 23, 1940, and she started working in the Pinckneyville shop on April 17, 1941. The shop was on South Walnut St., next door to what was then Kohlsdorf's Shoe Store.

At that time, a young man could buy a dozen roses for his sweetheart for about $5. A sweet pea wedding bouquet cost only 75 cents when the shop opened in 1941.

The business had always been a family affair. Daughter Linda Biby was only two weeks old when Erma began taking her to the shop. For Erma and Wendell, the florist's shop truly was a partnership until he passed away in 2000--he worked in the greenhouses, she arranged floral displays, and he delivered them on his bicycle. Over time, the mode of transportation improved beyond the bicycle with fond memories of a 1939 Ford and a 1941 Chevrolet owned by the business.

It's a good thing the business acquired more wheels--at one time, the greenhouse provided wholesale flowers for florists from Centralia to Harrisburg. Wendell delivered flowers to customers on the northern Centralia route as well as to those on the southern route, which took him to Murphysboro, Harrisburg, and Carbondale. The Erwins closed the wholesale business in 1999.

One of the most important changes for the Pinckneyville shop came in 1951, when it re-located from Walnut St. to Main St. And of course, the December 31, 2004, closing of the Pinckneyville shop changed Pinckneyville's business landscape forever.