Like a cat with nine lives, I too have had many reinventions. Before I became “MONROE” I gave most of my young adult years to the retail trade, merchandising and managing a string of retail stores. In the 70’s, I was one of the youngest female Merchandise Coordinators and in those days. The 80’s brought me into the wonderful world of beauty and hair. I got to promote and work with some of the top hairdressers of that era. Paul Mitchell, Jeanne Braa, Rudy Harlow, Brian Drumm, Rita & Irvine Rusk, Horst, Jon English, Tony & Guy and a host of others to name just a few. As the decade of fun ended and the 90’s began, I switched over to the music scene and became a partner of an independent record label (Gold Records), wardrobe stylist and co-owner of the Bus Stop Diner located in the heart of the LA Wilshire district. By mid 90’s I was a single mom back in retail, running higher-end fashion stores that catered to the fancy-consumers of Southern CA. As the new decade came, high Real Estate commissions lured me to become a Top Producer and opportunities for my own property investments. When my intuition told me the market was soon to crash, I sold high and got out. Being independent for so many years, I decided to open my own woman’s retail fashion boutique. Low property prices lured me to Western NY and the statistical data of a quaint Village called Hamburg lead me to believe that this would be a good place to bring my adventure. It wasn’t an easy task, but in the summer of 2007 I packed up my belongings along with my nearly adult daughter and we headed to the East Coast. On November 1, 2007 Monroe’s Place opened. My beautiful remodeled 7,000 sq ft building allowed me to live above my store and turned the gourmet kitchen into a quaint cafe space to bring in passive income. l successfully ran my store for 11 years. Received several awards for my active community participation and maintained profitability even during challenging times. I am very proud as of what I created and it brought much happiness to me however, it was by far the hardest job I ever had! The internet, big box, economic crashes and pandemics have been very hard on local small business brick and mortar businesses. I'm very satisfied in my timing of retiring in 2018. I sold my Hamburg building and reinvested in the Buffalo area by buying a few rental properties to maintain a passive income. This is my form of a pension. I now live a relaxed lifestyle enjoying all the extra time I now have with my family. Life has been, is and always will be... good!
