Stein family memorabilia donated to the museum

We recently received a large donation of Stein family memorabilia at the museum, and some of the stories associated with the family are very interesting. Howard Stein Sr. (1901-1991) grew up on his family farm in Canton at Michigan and Haggerty. He began growing vegetables in his father’s greenhouse and eventually started growing flowers too.
Around 1922 he began what became known as Stein’s flower shop. When the new theater building was built in Wayne in 1927 Stein opened a shop in Wayne just two shops down from the ticket booth.

Phyllis and Bud Stein

Harold married Irene Quackenbush in 1923 and they would have three children, Audrey, Howard Jr. and Peter. Stein’s flower shop would become a Wayne staple through the 1950s. Mr. Stein was a founding member of the Wayne Kiwanis club, and a founder of Wayne Bank.
Howard Jr., known informally as “Bud” would graduate from Wayne High School in 1943 and immediately joined the Army Air Corps for WW2. After training in Miami, he was stationed as a B-29 bomber radar operator on the island of Tinian in the pacific theater. While on a bombing raid over Japan his plane was hit by flak and going down. The pilots radioed a nearby submarine and got as close to it as possible before bailing out and letting the plane crash in the sea. Bud was one of only 3 survivors of the 11-man crew of that plane.
The submarine USS Toro picked them up out of the sea and the men had to live on the sub for a month before it came back to Tinian. At the end of the war Bud went to Michigan State for a degree in Horticulture so he could take over the family business. While there he met Phyllis and they married, and they would have three sons.
In 1954 the Wayne flower shop was closed and all operations moved back to the family farm in Canton which had been expanded and rebuilt. At the time flowers for arrangements accounted for 80% of sales, and the Steins grew most of what they needed on-site, with a few imports from Florida and California. Centerpieces, corsages, wedding, funeral and Church flowers were their bread-and-butter sellers. The shop and greenhouses employed 18 people and covered 40,000 square feet.
Outside of flowers Bud was involved with the Chamber of Commerce, Jaycees and in the Wayne Rotary Club for many years. In 1984 after running the family business for 35 years Bud sold Stein’s Flowers to Keller Florist Inc. and it became Keller & Stein Florist, which still exists but not at the Michigan Avenue property.
Bud and Phyllis would travel extensively in retirement, including back to Tinian to revisit his WW2 sites. Bud also created a unique mock Indian village behind his home in Canton and was active in an old-timer’s investment group and coffee klatch. He was also one of the founding donors of the WW2 memorial in Washington DC. Howard “Bud” Stein Jr. died in 2004 after a heart attack. His wife Phyllis passed away just last year. Many in Wayne remember a trip to Stein’s Flowers or likely received an arrangement from them.
Wayne still has a florist if you’re in the market, Flowers in the Mitten at the Makers Market, 34852 Michigan Ave.