Elizabeth Newberry never saw a challenge she couldn’t overcome, her family and friends said.
Several years ago, Newberry, co-owner of Newberry Brothers Greenhouse and Florists, was asked whether she did weddings. “Sure,” she said. She’d never done one.
But she did it, and weddings became her favorite thing to do.
“She loved to make people happy,” said her daughter, Paula Arnold of Denver, co-owner of Newberry Brothers.
Unfamiliar with possible costs, Newberry charged the couple $300. “That was about what the aisle runner cost,” her daughter said with a laugh.
Elizabeth Newberry died of rheumatoid arthritis June 21 at her Denver home. She was 89. Until two years ago, she was still doing books for the company.
“She never said ‘no’ to anything,” said longtime friend and customer Faye Gardenswartz of Denver, an event planner.
“I could call her at the last minute, and she’d come, always in heels and red lipstick and driving a beat-up car,” said a friend, Ricki Rest of Denver. “She was frugal.”
Newberry’s first aim was to please customers, Gardenswartz said, and she planned everything down to the last detail and then made a mock-up of the work to show the client. If the customer had a last- minute change, Newberry made it.
One last-minute change she couldn’t fix: when a couple canceled the wedding at the last minute. Newberry’s decorations were halfway set up, just hours before the wedding.
She and her daughter also had to rebuild after a devastating fire in 1989. They did — on the same spot — at 201 Garfield St.
One summer Newberry Brothers had 250 weddings, 17 on one weekend alone.
On a weekend like that, “Mom would come to work Friday morning and work nonstop, not going home until late Saturday night,” her daughter said.
Then there was the time a woman who lived nearby ordered 12 pots of white geraniums. Her husband said he wanted red instead. He took them back and got red. The wife returned them to the store and got white ones.
“Finally, we put the geraniums on a cart with rollers,” said Arnold, and after a week of that, Newberry persuaded the couple to take six of each color.
“She was self-assured, particular, loved her clients and seemed to become part of every family she worked with,” her daughter said.
Elizabeth Carter was born in Abilene, Texas, on Nov. 25, 1921, and went to Hardin-Simmons University there. She had a job at Woolworth and in one week was promoted to the accounting department, her daughter said.
She married Weldon Newberry on Sept. 25, 1950. Weldon Newberry and his two brothers went into the wholesale flower business after World War II. Eventually Weldon Newberry and Elizabeth Newberry bought out the brothers’ shares. Weldon Newberry died in 1984.
In addition to her daughter, Newberry is survived by one grandson.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
