Sanpete County - Along U.S. 89, Lily is the stuff of legend.
"If you can't get it at one of the big town stores, try Lily's," people say. "If Lily hasn't got it, she'll put in an order and it'll come in the mail."The stories of Lily are legion: She gets up in the middle of the night to pump gas for a distraught husband so he can rush his in-labor wife to the hospital; the lights go on in her store after midnight, to the consternation of the local cop, so she can deliver medicine to an asthmatic baby; she renders service and comfort and takes a bundle of groceries to a needy family who lack the wherewithal.
Lily, who presides over the Thomas Grocery store, is owner, manager, stock girl, clerk and custodian. She is gray-haired and possesses a big smile, a wobbly gait - the consequence of hip surgery - and an indomitable spirit.
She's also of indeterminate age, because she refuses to confirm the estimates of the curious. "I'm not old enough yet to blow away," Lily says.
Half the customers at Lily's store, she thinks, are locals, loyal the year round. The other half drop in on their way to Zions, Bryce and the Grand Canyon.
They stop for gas and goodies and almost invariably get involved in conversation. She's had visitors from Canada, France, Germany, Japan, and several other foreign countries as well as most of the states.
Lily finds them invariably curious, as they look around at the huge variety of stock in this store no bigger than an undersized, two-bedroom house.
The mother proceeds to buy postcards and stamps, the kids pop and munchies and the father ("Bless him," Lily says) a cowboy hat and a fancy shirt.
Whether from Tokyo or Montreal, Lily says, they seem to want that Western look. To them Western is apparently a symbol of America and freedom.
Former Utah Sen. Frank Moss dropped in at Lily's one day for a Coke, a roll and some conversation. Karl Malone, more recently, stopped by for some fishing gear. (Thrown in for free was some advice on the uses of dare devils and triple teasers.)
"I'm a people person," says Lily. "They may be famous or they may be nutty, but they're always human. They'll drive a dozen miles for a fill-up because my gas is 3 cents cheaper and then spend what they save on comic books."
Lily rents videos and stocks aspirin, ammunition, greeting cards, pop, beer and almost every conceivable kind of food that comes in cans, bottles and packages.
"I have to," she explains, "in order to make a living in a little country store." In addition, she puts in long hours, from around 7 a.m. until 9 p.m., six days a week, and a little less on Sundays, when she sleeps in or goes to church.
Roy and Ethel Larsen, her parents, opened a store in Sterling, down the street from what's now the Thomas Grocery, in 1914. As soon as Lily could reach the handle she was pumping gas and stocking shelves.
"Father taught me to work hard, listen, serve, smile, and say `thank you,' " Lily says.
Because her father had developed a severe case of arthritis, Lily left high school a year before graduation to take over the store. Soon after she married Evan Thomas, her hometown sweetheart.
For a few years they moved away to start a family and work in the war industries. They returned to Sterling in 1945 to own and operate a new store not far from the old one, by then demolished, where Lilly had learned to smile, to serve and to say "Thank you."
"There's a difference" Lily says. "In the old days, kids brought in eggs for candy, and refrigeration was blocks of ice my father chopped out at Nine Mile. The lighting was with kerosene lamps instead of fluorescent lights and the cash register was a tin box.
"We're modern now, but the spirit is the same."
In 1975 Evan died, and Lily debated whether to close the door and spend the rest of her days confronting the TV or stay the course. She decided to stay the course.
In 1987, Lily broke a hip, and in 1988 she had a repair job done on that hip. "My family," she says (three children, 10 grandchildren and now eight grandchildren) brought me safely through."
Arla Otten, her neighbor and sometimes helper, somewhat disagrees. "It was Lily's own iron determination," she says. "In three months she was back behind the counter."
Adding another chapter to the Lily Thomas legend.