Bea Ludwig, who was in the floral business for years, never ran out of ideas.
More than once, Ludwig and her husband, the late Ray Ludwig Sr., loaded an old van with corsages they sold to area high schools on football-game nights.
Bea Ludwig was 94 when she died Oct. 12 at a care facility in Morrison.
Ludwig had a natural touch with flowers, family members said, and their shop had a reputation for elaborate weddings, wedding receptions and other events.
Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day and all of December were the backbreakers, when the Ludwigs would work into the night to fill the orders.
Often, after getting her children fed and in bed, she’d be up late making bows of brightly colored ribbons and thin wire.
The Ludwigs moved their shop to 3411 S. Cherokee St., near the old Cinderella City, in 1966. They sold the shop in 1976.
When her son Jeffrey Ludwig needed a project for school, she helped him build a Titanic reproduction. “It was fantastic,” said Jeffrey Ludwig, of Highlands Ranch.
He called his mother the “heart, soul and moral compass” of the family, with an instinctive sense of right and wrong.
She expected her children to have good manners. “There was no horsing around, especially if we were at someone else’s house,” said her daughter, Bridgette Ludwig of North Palm Beach, Fla. If that happened, Ludwig took the child outside for a little talk, she said.
Beulah L. McKee was born in Thermopolis, Wyo., on Sept. 19, 1917. “She detested” her first name and always went by Bea, her family said. Her mother had died at an early age, and Bea Ludwig helped take care of her four siblings. She moved to Colorado when she was a teenager. She graduated from East High School and attended Denver University. She was trained in floral arranging when she worked for Speth’s Flowers on East Colfax Avenue.
While there, she met Ray C. Ludwig Sr., and they married March 8, 1941. He died in 2006.
She lived in San Diego while her husband was in World War II and worked for an aircraft company.
In 1946, the couple decided to open a floral shop, Flowers by Ludwig, at 2739 S. Broadway in Englewood.
In addition to her son and daughter, she is survived by another son, Ray C. Ludwig Jr., of Bayfield; four grandchildren; and one great-grandchild.
Virginia Culver: 303-954-1223 or vculver@denverpost.com
