Small business is the backbone of America.
A few weeks ago, I wrote about Albie Parker, a hard working, self-taught entrepreneur from Newton, who builds racing engines. Albie has a sister in Mt. Pleasant with every bit as much get-up-and-spit as Albie. (It runs in the family.) Her name is Shirley Kinney, and Shirley’s business, Cherished Memories, may be one of the best kept secrets in Mt. Pleasant.
Unnoticeably located in a southwest side residential area of Mt. Pleasant, like her brother, Shirley and her husband, Stew, live in their business. The kitchen is attached to the shop, which is attached to another shop, attached to another shop. Stew, a private contractor, and long-time fire chief for Mt. Pleasant, gave up his garages and built the shops for Shirley. (Major honey-do!)
What is Cherished Memories? You have a dream, Shirley and her staff of four employees will create it for you. They do embroidery, screen printing, glass etching, and make all kinds of knick-knacks for weddings, parties, anniversaries, birthdays, celebrations, or any kind of special occasion. You have an idea; Cherished Memories will take the idea and do everything from the original artwork to the final product.
Shirley has 10, count’m 10, high speed, computer controlled, embroidery machines. These machines, in a matter of seconds, sew embroidered designs that would take grandma days to hand stitch. The embroidery shop is a beehive of blurring needles, colored thread, T-shirts, sweat shirts, caps and blankets. Like her brother, jack-of-all-trades Shirley also repairs the machinery when it breaks down.
Move into the screen-printing shop, and you’ll see custom four-color screen printing in-process. Cherished Memories does everything from designing and creating the artwork, building the screen, to printing the design on shirts, caps, jackets, koozies, you-name-it.
Want your name or something cute etched on a wine glass or wine bottle, say, for a wedding? Voila! You got it!
Products and services offered by Cherished Memories, but not limited to, include sports apparel, photographs, ornaments (with pictures of you or your family on them), wedding glasses, napkins, wine bottles, candy bars, knife sets, balloons, koozies, grandma/grandpa shirts, picture frames (with the names of the people on the frame), etc.
As if the shop doesn’t keep her busy enough, on weekends Shirley travels to craft shows, pulling a huge trailer full of product. (Stew helps her load and unload the trailer, but doesn’t stick around for the show. He has better things to do.)
Like her brother, Shirley is from Monroe, self-taught, and a workaholic. Success has come from hard work, saving money, following a dream, and never taking out a business loan.
Chock up one more for Monroe.
A three-time cancer survivor at 58 (“Life is great!”); Shirley’s philosophy is “Don’t let the little things get you down. Take life as it comes. If you want to succeed, you have to work for it!”
And work she does.
Cherished Memories is located at 1004 W. Clay St. in Mt. Pleasant 52641. E-mail is daisy@lisco.com or phone at 319-385-4650.
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Have a good story? Call Curt Swarm in Mt. Pleasant toll-free at 1-866-385-3955 or email him at cswarm@humana.com.