Owner decides to sell Millie's Hallmark

It was the end of an era this week at Millie's Hallmark in Mount Prospect.

Millie Trapani and Ann Caldini, 35-year partners in the greeting card shop at 1024 S. Elmhurst Road, sold their store to two local businessmen, Bob Dooley and Bill Reddy, owners of Neat 'N Cool Gifts in downtown Mount Prospect.

"Bill and Bob are very enthusiastic and will take the store to new heights," Trapani said.

"I loved every minute of my time there, but it's time to let go," she added.

Caldini concurred. "It is hard to see it go. Employees become like family. But I had removed myself from the day-to-day operations many years ago when my husband became ill. So I have been a silent partner to Millie for some time now."

The women's partnership began in 1972, soon after Millie's husband's firm, Trapani Construction of Arlington Heights, completed construction on the Countryside Court shopping plaza.

"Ben needed tenants and my youngest children, twins, were 16 and didn't need me at home all the time anymore," Trapani said. "Anne had just retired from teaching at St. Raymond School and her two children were even older than mine. So Ben suggested that we open a store together, did some research and came up with Hallmark."

Originally called "The Write Shoppe," the store kept that name for approximately 25 years until Hallmark decreed that they wanted every independently owned store to have a woman's name attached to it.

About the same time, Hallmark also suggested Trapani and Caldini move their store to a more visible location.

So in 1997 they moved one shopping plaza north, to the corner of Route 83 and Golf Road, and renamed the store "Millie's Hallmark."

For several years the partners also had a second store which Caldini ran, first in Arlington Heights and later in Rolling Meadows. The partners sold "Anne's Hallmark" in the mid-1990s when Caldini's husband became ill and she retired from day-to-day operations.

"It has been a wonderful ride for me," Trapani said. "If you ever think of starting a second career, do it because you never get stale that way.

"I was in the store almost every day. You cannot be an absentee owner if you want your store to succeed. I was also proud that I made my own decisions," she added. "I never had anyone but myself to blame."

The store became a family affair with Trapani employing her daughters when they were teenagers and later, her four granddaughters.

"My mom had a knack for picking things and knowing what would sell," her daughter, Jan Abernethy of Arlington Heights, said. "And she always made people feel welcome in her store and in the community."