Throughout her 37 years as a small business owner, local florist Marilyn Michael has been honored for her service to the Haxtun community more than once. As she packed up her belongings from The County Rose upon retirement this summer, she counted eight awards that collected on her wall over the years. While they all are meaningful and deserving, the one she receives Saturday, Sept. 25 might be the sweetest of them all.

Marilyn has been selected to serve as the 100th annual Corn Festival Grand Marshal and will be honored for her years of dedication to the Haxtun community next Saturday.

As a life-long Haxtun resident, Marilyn said her goal in owning her own business was to work and raise her children in the same community she grew up in. When she had the opportunity to purchase then Jan's Floral and Gift, she jumped on it.

"I wanted to raise my kids in a small town, so they could go to school here and if I wanted to go to their activities, I could put a sticky note on the door and go," she said.

Marilyn grew up in Haxtun, the youngest of three children. Her parents, Fred and Ruby Heaston, lived on a farm just four miles north of Haxtun with Marilyn and her two brothers, Rodney and Harry. Marilyn graduated from Haxtun High School with the Class of 1972 and shortly after, married George Michael, six years her senior.

As George and Marilyn started their life together, they welcomed first son, Ryan, in 1976. When he was still a toddler, Marilyn began working for Jan Oswald in one of her two flower shops. Oswald owned shops in Haxtun and Holyoke. Marilyn first worked at the shop in Holyoke before being named manager of the shop in Haxtun.

In 1984, Oswald retired, giving Marilyn the option to purchase the Haxtun location. Marilyn took over the shop, then located in the 200 block of South Colorado Avenue where the hospital once was. Three years before purchasing the flower shop, Marilyn and George welcomed their second son, Kelly, in 1981.

Marilyn operated her flower shop, The County Rose, in that location until one cold day in late January 1997 when she went to open for the day and found her shop flooded. She said for some reason the electricity had been shut off to the apartments upstairs and cold temperatures caused pipes to break and water was pouring into her business below.

"I was beside myself," she said.

Marilyn remembers asking the Town to shut off the main water source while trying to gather anything salvageable out of the shop. It was just two weeks before Valentine's Day, one of her flower shops busiest holidays.

While frantically trying to figure out what to do, Marilyn said Sherilyn Smith came in and said the old Brotherton Pharmacy building in the next block over was empty and she knew the owner.

"She asked if I wanted to take it and I just said 'well sure,'" Marilyn recalls. "People just came in off the street and started grabbing things and took it down the block."

Marilyn said with help from volunteers, she had things back up and running in time to serve the community for Valentine's Day.

While her children were growing up, Marilyn operated The County Rose and was able to be there for all her kids sporting events and activities, just like she'd hoped.

Along with following her kids and taking an active role in the Haxtun Booster Club, Marilyn was instrumental within the Haxtun Chamber of Commerce. When she first purchased the flower shop, she remembers Yost asking her to attend a Chamber meeting and she's been a member since.

Throughout her time with the Chamber, Marilyn played a vital role in planning Corn Festival more times than she can remember. In addition to serving on the Corn Festival committee, she has continuously helped John Chapdelaine announce the parade from the main stage.

In addition to her work in hosting many Corn Festival events, Marilyn also chaired Haxtun's Country Christmas. She held several Chamber offices including treasurer and vice president. Marilyn worked to help organize the annual awards and membership banquet; an event she's been honored at herself. While she can't specifically recall all of her awards, she knows some included Business Person of the Year as well as the Gold Star Award.

The Haxtun Chamber of Commerce annually honors members within who go above and beyond for others in their community with the Golden Star award.

In addition to her volunteer hours with the Haxtun Chamber of Commerce, Marilyn served on the Phillips County Relay for Life committee, two of which she co-chaired.

Marilyn was also a Jayceette. She remembers the Jaycee club having a taco booth at Corn Festival for several years. She said members would go to Baja Tacos in Sterling and make taco meat and bring it back to assemble the tacos. Marilyn said the owner of Baja Tacos had ties to the Haxtun community but wouldn't share the spice recipe for the taco meat so instead would give it to the members in a brown paper bag to mix with the meet for the stand at Corn Festival.

George was a long-time member of the Haxtun Volunteer Fire Department and while the two were married, Marilyn worked alongside other firemen's wives as a Siren. Sirens aided in anything fireman might need in their service to the community.

To Marilyn, creating beautiful floral arrangements for her customers wasn't just a job. She recalls being a part of several second generation weddings, maybe even three.

"Having the same people, you get emotionally invested in your customers," Marilyn said. "You serve them in their biggest life events ... weddings, celebrations of life. I have great appreciation for them."

Marilyn's eyes fill with tears when she recalls acts of kindness shown to her throughout her time in Haxtun and as a business owner. Like the time the community helped her move her shop when it flooded, more recently when community members came together to donate funds to those whose businesses were forced to close due to COVID and most recently when Marilyn had unexpected health problems.

"I was just amazed," she said thinking back to the pay-off of owning a business in a small community.

In January of this year, Marilyn underwent two surgeries to fix three lesions in her brain. The medical set back physically slowed her down and an opportunity presented itself for Marilyn to sell her flower shop to locals Mike and Rebecca Ensminger.

When Marilyn first purchased the shop 37 years ago and she was thinking about a suitable name, she flipped between Every Blooming Thing and The Country Rose. She obviously settled on The County Rose but when Ensmingers took over earlier this summer, Rebecca paid tribute to Marilyn with her new business name, Every Bloomin' Thing.

"Everything kind of changed in the blink of an eye," Marilyn said of her health and recovery leading to her decision to sell her flower shop. "It wasn't something I anticipated doing, but physically I was forced to."

While she no longer owns the flower shop, Marilyn still remains a familiar face, working part-time to help Rebecca with the transition and during busy seasons. That paired with attending her grandchildren's school activities, Marilyn stays as busy as she'd like.

"I miss seeing the people, it was tough to let it go," she said of the sale of The Country Rose. Marilyn said she's still trying to decide if she likes her new retirement phase of life but she does have more time to spend with her family.

Ryan now lives in California with wife Caroline. He graduated from Haxtun High School in 1995 and later joined the United States Army. Since his enlistment in 2004, Ryan has had seven tours overseas including four tours in Afghanistan, two to Iraq and one to Korea. He is now a Sergeant First Class and works at a National Training Center.

Kelly and his wife, Sara, both graduated from Haxtun High School in 1999 and live in Haxtun. Kelly works as a Manager at Kurtzer's and Sara is a third grade teacher at Lone Star. The couple have two children, Tate, a freshman, and Blakelyn, a seventh grader.

Kelly and his family will be with Marilyn as she is honored as Grand Marshal on Saturday, Sept. 25. Training exercises may keep Ryan from traveling home, but Marilyn knows that comes with his job.

She's still in some disbelief she was nominated and chosen for the Grand Marshal title.

"It is so overwhelming," Marilyn said. "I am very honored, but there are so many people in this community that deserve it. I just do what everyone else in a small town does. I didn't do anything special."