Florist shop co-owner known for honesty, loyalty, and wit

3/2/2003

ADRIAN - Carolyn Glaser, who with her husband, Lewis, ran florist shops here and in Blissfield and had a real estate office, died Wednesday in Lenawee Medical Care Facility of congestive heart failure. She was 81.

Mrs. Glaser and her husband owned and ran Glaser's Flowers and Gifts on West Maumee Street from 1948 to 1973. The flower shop, at first, was in the back of the family home. The business later expanded into the front yard.

“She was co-owner. She did floral design,” her daughter, Carol Lue Weaver, said. “She did most of the bookkeeping for him. They worked hard, but there was always time for family.”

The couple spent hours in the shop making Easter and Mother's Day corsages, but “we never felt neglected,” their daughter said. “There was always a family celebration every holiday [and] family traditions.”

When the children grew older, they helped out during the busy holiday seasons.

“You had to work together to survive, and it was so natural to be together as family members,” her daughter said. “Mom had a real satisfaction in having a close-knit family and in contributing not only to the business, but to the community.”

The couple took over the Blissfield shop in 1957, after the death of her mother-in-law, Maude Tall Glaser, who was the owner. They ran that shop until 1972.

Mrs. Glaser was secretary of First Baptist Church for 10 years and, later, was a partner with her husband in Glaser Real Estate, which closed in 1991.

Mrs. Glaser grew up in Adrian and was a graduate of Adrian High School. She attended Adrian College. As a child, she learned dance because her mother wanted her to be a child star. She performed around the country and even gave lessons.

She was a volunteer for the Lenawee County Historical Museum and wrote about the early years of First Baptist for the church newsletter. She was a charter member of the Adrian Zonta Club and a volunteer driver for Meals on Wheels.

Family and friends admired her strong sense of honor, her fierce loyalty, “and her total sense of unconditional love,” her daughter said.

She and her husband married Sept. 27, 1942. He died Feb. 26, 1990.

Surviving are her sons, Nelson, Lewis, and Jeffrey Glaser; daughter, Carol Lue Weaver; eight grandchildren, and nine great-grandchildren.

Services will be at 10 a.m. tomorrow in the Braun Everiss Wagley Mortuary, Adrian, where the body will be from 2 to 5 p.m. today.