Longtime florist son of renowned BG architect

Monday, December 20, 2004

Plenty of people in Kentucky knew Creedmore Fleenor in his heyday.

I would say he was a renowned architect, said his son, Creedmore Fleenor Jr., 86, of Bowling Green. He had redesigned the plans for the Capitol in Frankfort and was superintendent of construction of the Capitol in Frankfort.

In Bowling Green, the elder Fleenor drew up the plans for First Baptist Church which burned and was rebuilt in the 1990s the Pushin Building and other places. He built Smiths Grove Baptist Church, other buildings and homes throughout southcentral Kentucky. He also wrote books of poetry.

But Creedmore Fleenor Jr. barely remembers the man he knows so much about.

My father died when I was 7, he said.

The elder Fleenor was just 55 when he died of pneumonia. Besides Fleenor, he left behind a young daughter, the now-late Martha Jane Adams, and his wife, Inez, who was nearly 30 years his junior.

Fleenor said his mom, who has since died, was the strong, determined type. After his dad died, she started a business, Inez Flower Shop, to support her young children.

First, we were in a small cubbyhole on the corner of 10th and State streets, Fleenor said from his home on Steeplechase Way. Then, we moved to the annex of the Helm Hotel.

While the business stayed there for many years, Fleenor, his sister and his mother lived in an apartment at 522 E. Main St.

Eventually, my mother bought the building, he said.

She built onto the front and opened her shop there, renting out another space to a doctor.

Fleenor worked at the business as a child, and as a young man attended Western Kentucky University. On Easter, he helped fill corsage orders. On Christmas Eve, while other families were relaxing, his family was working with flower arrangements. Often, while going to Western, Fleenor skipped chapel to deliver orders.

At Western, he studied campusology, he joked.

He really wanted to be an engineer.

But I didnt have a chance, he said. My mother had a sister who was a teacher and she was going to send me to Georgia Tech, but she lost her job through politics and I didnt get to go.

After three years, he dropped out of WKU.

He helped in the flower shop and later worked for the Tennessee Valley Authority as an assistant to a superintendent.

In 1944, he met his wife, Trudy, an Alabama girl who had come to town to study at Bowling Green Business University. Fleenor was instantly smitten.

We married here in Bowling Green at Westminster Presbyterian Church, he said.

Through the years, his mom retired and he ran the flower shop while still working at TVA.

He and Trudy went on to have four children, Nancy Fleenor of Memphis, Tenn., Creed Fleenor of Mesa, Ariz., and Alice Jewell and Trudy Burkeen, both of Bowling Green.

We have attractive children, Fleenor said with a wink. Theyre just like their daddy.

In the 50s, the Fleenors sold the flower business. To support his brood, Fleenor began buying rental property.

And I built a house for our children, he said. I drew the plans, did the contracting and built the house.

He and Trudy had come a long way from the days when they first married and slept on a borrowed bed. And a new business venture was coming their way.

The owner of the business that installed the air-conditioning in their new home told Fleenor shed like to sell it.

I said, Ill buy it, he said simply. The business was Bowling Green Roofing and Sheet Metal, but they did heating and air-conditioning.

For years, Fleenor ran the business.

Then he sold it and became a real estate salesman, who still owned many rental properties.

Several years ago, he retired.

He said he and Trudy have had a good life.

Thanks to their daughter, Nancy, who worked for FedEx and gave them vacations that were perks of her job, they have traveled a great deal.

Weve been places, Fleenor said. Switzerland, Mexico, Hong Kong, Thailand, England, all the British Isles.

Weve been on five cruises, Trudy added.

She said theyve had a strong marriage and are enjoying living in the small home to which they downsized not too long ago. She said her husband is a funny guy.

After we moved out here he said, Were all by ourselves and we have a new home, and were all alone. Do you want to start another family? Trudy said. It would have been a miracle if it happened.

The Fleenors say they dont take for granted the 60 years they have had together. Both have suffered from heart attacks. Every Friday, they go on a date.

Fleenor said getting married has been the best thing that has ever happened to him.

Because he found the one he wanted, Trudy joked.

Thats right, he said, as he looked at her, without a hint of his trademark dry humor.

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