Living Her Passion--Mary Carol Garrity

Our first Dame Extraordinaire is from the 10,000+ population town in northeast Kansas, Atchison. Being aviation fans you would naturally expect that to be Amelia Earhart but we have chosen the life-time resident The Wall Street Journal calls a “one person economic development force” and Forbes describes as “one of America’s hottest little retailers” – Mary Carol Garrity.

Mary Carol has said, “ Growing up in Atchison around my parents' former clothing store, G. Diebolts, instilled a love of retail from a young age.” In 1990 she made the bold decision to open Nell Hills (named after her maternal Grandmother) in an old bank building in downtown Atchison—the very area many retailers were leaving.  The store actually began as a gourmet food shop, transitioned into décor and has now become 3 stores, 5 books and her own lines of furniture, paint and home accents. She has a syndicated column and has been featured on CBS’s The Early Show, NBC’s Today shows, in the The Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Midwest Living, Country Living, Victoria, and many more articles. The demographics are that 95% of her customers return several times a year from all over the country!

While all of that is certainly extraordinary, we chose Mary Carol for other equally compelling reasons. I, Gwyn, first went to Nell Hill’s in 1995 at the recommendation of my daughter-in-law to be, Susan, who was a resident of Atchison at the time and the Music Ed teacher in the high school Mary Carol’s daughter attended. My first purchase was an engagement present for my son and future daughter-in-law. I met Mary Carol that day and was so impressed that she knew exactly who Susan was and spoke very highly of her, etc. Years later, I arranged to meet with Mary Carol to run a business idea I had by her. Not only was she very helpful and encouraging, I couldn’t help but notice she spoke to everyone passing through the store—whether they were dressed to the nines or were wearing overalls (you get that when you are in a small Kansas town). She is as genuinely warm and engaging as she is talented. The uniqueness, style and class of everything she does has been our inspiration. We say we want to be “the Nell Hill’s of women’s aviation apparel, etc.”

Mary Carol Garrity is a fantastic example of starting right where you are, living your passion and making a difference!