Memories of the Kilwins

Don’s Story

Donald Alfred Kilwin was born in Detroit, MI on March 9, 1923 (100 years ago this year). Except that his name was not actually Kilwin. All four of his grandparents had come to this country from Germany – or at least from parts of Europe that are now part of Germany.

His paternal grandparents were Adolph and Marie Luise [Krebs] Kilwinski and they had come to the US from what was known as East Prussia. The Kilwinski surname is more Polish than German. They had one daughter with them when they arrived in March 1893 and had two sons in the years after arrival, including Donald’s father, Alfred, who was born in January 1894.

His maternal grandparents, Hugo Hafenfeld and Antonia Rahn, had come as young children in 1879 and 1887 respectively, and they married in 1895, also in Detroit. Donald’s mother, Antoinette, was born there in 1898.

Alfred and Antoinette married in 1921 and Donald was born in 1923, the oldest of an eventual three children with Roy being born in 1925 and Eileen in 1927.

The family kept the Kilwinski surname at least through Adolph’s death in 1938. But with the war in Europe beginning in 1939, Alfred changed the family name to Kilwin as having such a German/Polish name was leading to discrimination. In the 1940 census the name Kilwin appeared for the first time in public records. That must have been a bit traumatic for a 16-year-old boy, still in high school!

Following graduation from high school in 1941, Don attended the Dunwoody baking school in Minneapolis. Then he found employment as a baker in Detroit.

 

Katy’s Story

Katy was from Manistique, in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Her father’s ancestors had been in Canada since the 1600s – primarily in Quebec as they were French-speaking (the name Richey had been derived from Richard). In contrast, Katy’s mother, Catherine McEachern, was of Scottish origin and her ancestors had only been in Canada or northern Michigan since the early 1800s.

Katy, legally Kathryn Ann Richey, had been born in 1925 and lived there until her graduation from high school. She then got a job as a bookkeeper at a local bank. It was in Manistique that she met Don a few years later.

 

Don and Katy – the Early Years

Don was not eligible to serve in WWII as he had very poor eyesight. A friend of his, Ted, was getting married in Manistique and he asked Don to be his best man in the wedding. Ted’s fiancée, Fern, was a friend of Katy’s and so Don and Katy met at the wedding. It was apparently love at first sight.  Don applied for their marriage license on June 18, 1945, in Detroit, and they were married in Katy’s hometown of Manistique two weeks later on June 30, 1945.  For the next two years, they remained in Detroit and Don kept working at a local bakery.

But Don really wanted to own his own bakery. Since Katy was from the Upper Peninsula, he was open to buying a bakery in that part of the state. In 1947, having seen an advertisement in a Detroit newspaper, they purchased the Weimer Bakery in Petoskey and named it Kilwin’s. They lived on the 2^nd floor above the bakery. Being in the northern part of Michigan, there were not as many customers as during the summer and they soon realized that the bakery business didn’t have enough customer base in the winter. So they diversified and started to make chocolates as well. (See here for some of the details).

It was in 1957 that the new Mackinac Bridge opened. This would have resulted in increased traffic and visitors in Petoskey. In 1958, Don and Katy built a new building on the corner of Jackson and West Mitchell for their new store. They also bought the house behind it for the two of them. They found that the excessive heat from their new kitchen was not conducive for the making of chocolates, so they then purchased the building next door in 1967 and turned it into a chocolate and gift store. They also rented part of it to a family friend for use as a hair salon.

 

Crossing Paths

It was about this time that my wife first encountered the Kilwins. She had graduated from high school in 1966 and after working for a short time in a local factory had gotten a job working in Kilwin’s Bakery as an early morning helper and clerk. She had moved out of her family home outside of town and was renting a low-priced room in a nearby home.

In the Spring of 1967, the Kilwins suggested to her that she might take some classes in the local junior college (North Central Michigan College) – just a short distance away. She did so, taking just one class to see if she liked it, then enrolling full-time that fall. Don and Katy, who had no children of their own, took her under their wing. She continued working for them while taking a full load of classes. It was about this same time that Don and Katy began renting a summer cottage on Walloon Lake outside of town (more on this below).

After graduating from NCMC, my wife enrolled in the Education Intern Program at Michigan State University. The EIP program offered students the opportunity to work as full-time teachers under a mentor teacher. By getting 60% of the salary of a regular teacher, the up-and-coming teachers could essentially pay for their education at the same time. The mentor teacher in the Alpena area was Ruth Richey, Katy’s sister-in-law, so Donna had an “in”. Her only times spent at the MSU campus would be that first summer of 1969 and a ten-week quarter in the spring of 1970. All her other time would be spent in Alpena.

It was during that spring quarter of 1970 that I met Donna (that’s a story for elsewhere). When she went home for the summer (and working for the Kilwins) I visited her most weekends – making the 200-mile drive from East Lansing to Petoskey in record time. Don and Katy vetted me and evidently found me acceptable to marry their “daughter”. It was also that summer that they decided to build a new house on a bluff on the shore of Walloon Lake so they could give up both the rental facility a short distance away as well as their house in Petoskey.

There were a number of significant events in 1971. Most important (at least to me), was my wedding to Donna. While my best man, Doug, and I stayed in a nearby motel, Donna and her maid-of-honor, Kay, stayed at the Kilwins. [Perhaps repeating the experience of Don and Katy 26 years earlier, Doug and Kay fell in love with each other and married just 5 months later on New Year’s Eve of 1971 – they’re also still married over 50 years later.]

At the wedding, we had the traditional bride’s side and groom’s side sitting, but we also had Don and Katy sit right in the middle of the front row – indicating that they were important to both of us. Their wedding gift to us was Katy baking and decorating our beautiful tiered wedding cake.

That same year, they sold their bakery (now called Johan’s Bakery) and concentrated on the candy and gift shop business. They moved that back downtown in 1974 – right across the street from their original bakery. The first floor was the candy shop and they made the candy down in the basement in a large open room where they had poured a new smooth floor more suitable to candy making than concrete.

 

A Continued Relationship

Don and Katy were not just friends to my wife and I, they were more like family. We had no children yet, so used to make the trek to Michigan (initially from CT, then later from PA) pretty much every summer, and staying for a few days in their lake house on Walloon. A few memories from this period stand out.

One summer we had just gotten there and were unloading our car when my wife accidentally shut the trunk while the car key was sitting on the top of a box in the trunk. After vainly trying to get it open, we ended up calling a trusted neighbor back in PA, giving him instructions on how to use a ladder to reach an unlocked egress on the 2^nd floor and where to find our spare keys. He express mailed them to us so we were able to get the trunk unlocked.

Another summer Don and Katy were making chocolate-covered cherries while we were there and they invited us to join them for the day. Donna helped coat the cherries and enrobe them in chocolate before putting them on a conveyor belt through the cooler. I had the task of taking them off the belt and packing them in storage boxes. If you’ve ever seen the video clip of Lucille Ball doing this and being overwhelmed, that’s what my job was (see here). For the record, you are allowed to eat a few, but you quickly get tired of them. We also helped/watched the making of peanut brittle (all mixed in a large pot, then spread on a large aluminum-topped table until it cools after which it can be broken up into pieces) and fudge (spread on those same tables with long bars of aluminum to keep it from running off onto the floor, then cut up into squares).

Finally, there was the Easter when  they made us a custom pair of chocolate Easter bunnies. You’ve probably seen them in stores – the big ones that are over a foot tall. But where most such Easter bunnies are hollow inside (except for the ears which may be solid), these were custom made just for us. Mine was filled with my favorite nuts – cashews. And Donna’s was filled with chocolate mints. A truly unique pair of rabbits!

In 1978, they were approached by Wayne Rose, a businessman who had owned the local Ford dealership and was interested in franchising the Kilwin operation. A few years earlier, Don had developed a candy base and had trademarked it under the name “Kandy Wink”. If Wayne took over the manufacturing of candy, then Don and Katy could concentrate on a part of the business they really loved – helping others get set up in the business.

Don had teamed up with another entrepreneur from MA, Alan Hilliard (www.hilliardschocolate.com) who had begun making chocolate equipment (tempering and cooling) in his basement. Don would meet with individuals all up and down the east coast, selling them the appropriate pieces of Hilliard equipment, having them buy the Kandy Wink bases for locally-made items and becoming a franchisee of Kilwin’s for things that were best made in the chocolate factory back in Petoskey. It was not just sales, but a real hands-on education for each of these new chocolate shop owners.

They would also regularly attend candy conventions in various places. When it was in eastern PA, we would be invited to meet them there for the day. One such meeting was in Reading – only a half-hour from our home – and another was in Valley Forge – about an hour away.

It was on one of these trips in late 1982, when they were driving in Beaver Falls, PA (Katy did all the driving as Don’s eyesight did not enable him to get a license) that Don had a massive heart attack and passed away a few days later at the age of 59. It was not totally unexpected, as Don’s father had also died of a heart attack at age 63, but it still saddened us.

Don had been very involved in many things. He was a member of the local Rotary Club and an officer of the local Chamber of Commerce. He was also a member and board member of the Retail Bakers of America, a member of the Retail Confectioners, International, and served on the board of trustees of the Michigan State Chamber of Commerce. He and Katy were also charter members of the Petoskey Whirlaways, the local square dancing club.

But none of those accolades mattered to us – Don and Katy were good friends and more like family than friends. Our concern at the time was for Katy as she and Don were not only husband and wife but also business partners who spent nearly all their time together.

 

Life Goes On

We visited Katy at the Walloon Lake home once more the following summer. By then she had decided to sell that home and move back into Petoskey into a condominium where she wouldn’t have to be involved in any property maintenance. As part of that move, we were invited to take a few things that reminded us of Don. We chose to take his small Hammond organ (Don couldn’t read music, but he loved to play by ear), and part of their large collection of salt and pepper shakers.

Katy had a lovely place at the condo. In addition to the living area upstairs, there was a large room downstairs where she set up her Hilliard Chocolate Machine and continued making chocolates for family and friends. (In this picture, she had the one in the middle.) Whenever we visited we were always given a supply to take back to PA with us (all things that would not melt of course). We always enjoyed our visits, taking along our children to see their blessed “Aunt Katy” – they stayed on the pull-out couch downstairs while we had the guest room upstairs.

It wasn’t until 1996 that Katy remarried – to Paul Varga, a retired salesman from “down state” who had moved to Petoskey to be closer to his son in Emmet County.  They had met while playing bridge. Katy eventually sold the Kandy Wink business to a relative – Paula and Ken Fineout. Paula’s maiden name was McEachern, the same as Katy’s mother. In 1997, she celebrated “Fifty Years in Business” and announced her retirement. We, of course, were in attendance.

Paul and Katy were married for 18 years when he passed away in 2014. Katy stayed in the condo for a while, then in early 2017 she moved into a local retirement/assisted living center. That summer we went to Michigan for the wedding of a family member, taking two of our grandsons with us, and visited her. In September, it became obvious that Katy was failing (at age 92). Donna had been calling her weekly and you could tell from Katy’s voice. We quickly set up an emergency visit so Donna could see her one last time – with Donna traveling out by bus. Katy passed away about a week after that visit. (See obituary here.)

There was no funeral, so we did not go out again. But it was a little surprising when we discovered that Katy had named us as beneficiaries of an annuity in her will.

 

The Beat Goes On

While Don and Katy have both passed on, the Kilwin name continues. Since that name had its origins in Don’s father changing the name in 1939, the name is unique and the 2.6 million references in Google are all about the business that Don started in the late 1940s in Petoskey. There are now 160 Kilwin’s Chocolates stores in 26 states.

As the article in the Petoskey News above states, “The Kilwin’s name is everywhere you turn. … It makes one proud to be standing in one of the many Kilwin’s stores and letting everyone know you too are from Petoskey. Don and Katy Kilwin probably never imagined their idea of making chocolates in the winter to supplement their business would have made their name so recognizable to so many.”

While that tribute is nice, I’m happy that I knew the people behind that name – our good friends, Don and Katy Kilwin. And it’s them that I remember – not the candy.