Edgar Reece started the business some years before his marriage to Allie Williams in 1912. At that time the firm was located at 108 South Kansas Avenue. The business was destroyed by fire in 1928 and it was about six months before the Reeces’ opened up again in the present location of 107 North Kansas Avenue. Mr. Reece died in 1930 but Mrs. Reece and her daughter, Ernestine, continued to operate the concern together until June 1957, when another change took place with the marriage of her daughter to Jean Hirsch and the couple left Marceline to reside in Texas. Mrs. Reece continued to operate alone until the confectionery was sold in 1960 to Mrs. Della Lake.
In Marceline, Reece’s has been considered by patrons here and in towns surrounding the area as “the place to go” for good wholesome refreshments and sandwiches. One merchant in Marceline of many years said, ”In my early days when a young man walked his date for a treat at Reece’s, it really made an impression and it would be interesting to know how many successful marriages culminated by couples whose future plans took form while on dates at Reece’s.”
Mrs. Reece is a native of Marceline and graduated from the Park High School in 1909. Her first employment was with a local newspaper, The Marceline Mirror, then owned by J. D. Mendenhall. Afterwards she worked as a clerk at the Marceline Post Office for about two years until her marriage. She has one sister, Mrs. Lillian Shannon, Kansas City, Kansas.