Lila Lee’s legacy lives on after neon sign comes down

GUNNISON – Lila Lee Christensen and her family have had a presence on Gunnison’s Main Street from her birth until the neon sign containing her name was removed in spring 2024.

Christensen operated her formal dress shop, Lila Lee Apparel at 70 S. Main, for more than 40 years. years. Yet the building, with yellow brick and oval windows large enough to encourage window shopping, was built by her father.

Christensen’s parents, Loyal and Hazel Christensen, built the building in 1938. It began as “Hazel’s Cafe.” Later, the family later changed the name to “Loyal’s Place” and it became a popular pub and pool hall.

The building was “a cafe on (the south) side, and living quarters on the (north) side,” Lila Lee explained. Her parents and older brother, LeGrande, were living there when she was born.

“The (Gunnison) hospital had not been completed—it was about three weeks from being completed. And Mom didn’t want to go to Salina (because) her doctor was here, Doctor J.A. Hagan.” So on Tuesday July 13, 1943 “(Doctor Hagan) delivered this little tot in that building,” she says.

Lila Lee recalls pictures of herself as a toddler in front of the family building dressed in “cute little clothes….I knew all of the store owners on Main Street, and soI’m learning how to walk, and walking up and down Main Street.”

In 1950, Loyal and Hazel built another building a few doors to the north at 28 S. Main Street (where Lambertsen State Farm Insurance is currently located). Lila Lee says that no one knew what was going into the new building. Then one day she came skipping around the corner from Washington Elementary (located where the current Gunnison Stake Center is) to the pub as she did on a typical day.

That’s when her mother told her she had a surprise for her. She took her out to the new building and she flipped a switch to reveal the “Lila Lee Apparel” sign. Lila Lee, who was 7, says she was touched to have a clothing store named after her.

The new apparel store brought a lot of new money into Gunnison, by attracting loyal shoppers from all over Sanpete, she says.

She remembers many unique clothing items over the years. But she says two items stand out: an Easter dress she received as a young girl and, of course, her prom dress.

 Her mother let Lila Lee pick out a dress from a manufacturer. But delivery of the dress came down to the wire.So her mother called the headquarters and told them they “needed a dress!” The dress that came ended up being a surprise, but beautiful none the less. It was a white “Nadine” dress with pink accents and had Italian lace all along the back. Lila Lee had a shoulder jacket sewn to accompany it.
Lila Lee graduated from Gunnison Valley High School in 1961, after which she attended Snow College and then USU. She graduated in elementary education, language arts, art and history.

A newspaper biography from 1981 says Lila Lee was “encouraged by her parents to become a teacher because of the magnetic draw children have to her.”

Lila Lee spent her first year teaching at Zephyr Cove on Lake Tahoe, Nevada, and the next year taught second grade in Park City. By her third year she had been hired by Provo School District. While mostly teaching second grade, she also became a curriculum writer for a project called “World of Work.” Besides writing curriculum, she gave seminars, and supervised implementation of the project for five Utah school districts and five of the western states.

Sixteen years working in Elementary Education was quite fulfilling, she says, but after her father passed away in 1980, she wanted to help take care of her mother. While Lila Lee had been away, her older brother, LeGrande Christensen, had run a furniture and art store, “LeGrande Originals,” It was in the building where Loyal’s place had been.

As Lila Lee began to dedicate her career to her mother and her apparel store, a decision had to be made about what to do with the two buildings and the business. Initially, LeGrande suggested selling “Lila Lee Apparel;” however, Lila Lee kept her mother, Hazel, in mind and decided she would try her best at running and keeping the store. A business plan was created for Lila Lee to purchase the family business.
Lila Lee wanted to regenerate the clientele by bringing in exclusive formal dresses. During the first dress market Lila Lee and Le Grande attended in Los Angeles, Lila Lee picked out some beautiful prom dresses. Le Grande told her, “You can’t sell that there.” She told her brother, “You watch me.”

As formal wear picked up, they ultimately needed more room. This was when one more decision had to be made. The brother-sister duo moved the apparel shop in the space occupied by Le Grande Originals.
Describing her strategy, Lila Lee says, “The brands that I bought were all featured in Seventeen magazine. So I took a page out of their book and added it to mine…We did it on a shoestring. We put the big mirrors in, and eventually made it quite pleasant.”

“When I approached (Hazel) on turning the downstairs into a prom floor, she was not too happy with me, because of the price of the dresses,” Lila Lee says. “They were expensive.”

It must have been a sight to see the apparel shop move a few doors down on Main Street. Lila Lee and her brother, with the help of Earl Elmont, moved the fixtures and inventory to the “new” location.

Lila Lee wanted to be sure the fragile mannequins were not broken in the move, “I moved all of the mannequins down the street,” she recalls “I want you to know they were all clothed. We got beautiful windows” dressed up, and Lila Lee Apparel “became a star on Gunnison Main Street.”

Her business focus was high-quality formal ware, with custom alterations, and providing one-of-a-kind dresses to each client. Apparel was modest, making each girl feel like she was Lila Lee’s only priority. “It was about the girl, not the dress,” she says.

Lila Lee developed her creative side through the whole process. She taught herself to tailor dresses based on custom fittings and to hand dye shoes and hair accessories to match.
Lila Lee also picked up calligraphy, creating custom invitations to all the junior girls in the surrounding counties to come experience her shop. This exemplified the personal touch she put into everything in her store.

A “fairy godmother” some young women would lovingly describe her. One of those was Kristyn Bore, who, at 7 years old, would ride her bike down to Lila Lee’s shop to gaze at the pretty dresses.

In early November, Kristyn would get a personal call from Lila Lee and tell her “the prom dresses are in.” Kristyn would hop on her bike and be there in a minute to see the new styles

Kristyn has a picture from her prom in 1994 of herself with her girlfriends, each wearing a Lila Lee custom dress. “I still love my dress,” she declares.

“I subscribed to Seventeen magazine, and whenever there was a full page ad for a formal dress, there was always a list by state of dress shops where you could buy the dress.

“I just remember always feeling so proud. Here is a major magazine, every teenager girl gets it, and there are these gorgeous dresses, and there is my hometown store listed in this national publication. What sort of an impact did it have on the economy? Who else on our Main Street was advertising in a nation magazine?

“I loved to drive past the store at night when the windows were lit up and all of the mannequins were dressed wearing pretty gowns and sparkly prom dresses…Anytime I was coming from watching a movie at the theater. I would peer through the windows and admire all of the dresses while I waited for my ride to come and pick me up.”

Lila Lee says President’s Day weekend, right before the prom, was always her most successful weekend. She told of how a client might come and look, go to Salt Lake the next day, but be right back to get just the right dress and all the custom treatment that came with it.
Lila Lee went to dress markets all over the United States. Those markets gave her access to styles from all over the world, which really gave a young shopper the feeling that Lila Lee was shopping all over the world just for her.

Lila Lee would buy two or three dresses in varying sizes for each style. Yet she paid close attention so no two girls at the same high school showed up at the prom wearing the same dress.

Markell Barclay says, “Growing up as a child in Gunnison Utah, you always drove by and saw Lila Lee’s shop on Main, and her beautiful mannequins dressed in incredible gowns. I always was so excited and looking forward to the chance to own one.

“When the time came, Lila Lee was so excited…and made me feel like she went all over the world to find the perfect dress for my body and height, even though I know she didn’t, but it was a true experience that I’m sad my daughters won’t be able to receive.

“She sold me multiple gowns, for my wedding, prom, and even dress suits. It was something I looked forward to any chance I had.
“I know Lila had people coming from all over Central Utah, if not further away, to have that same experience with her custom fittings, her beautiful mirrors (and) clean nice shop. She treated everyone so respectfully and made them all feel so beautiful for such important events in their lives.”

But the bottom line for Lila Lee was not the dresses but building confidence in each girl. If a family desired a gown but didn’t have the funds, Lila Lee always tried her best to fit their personal needs. One year, she fitted a girl in the perfect dress and then had her younger brother, Joe L. Christensen, chief of police at the time, deliver it anonymously.

“My endearing to her was truly because of my prom dress,” Bore says, “but she helped me with my wardrobe for Miss Utah, dress for Miss Gunnison, all of that. She helped me with everything, even with little dresses for FFA sweetheart and election for class officer or a simple dance. That’s where we would always go, because she always had nice classy things. Or my Dad would bring us as little girls to pick out a sweater for our mother. Lila Lee just had that eye and knack for picking out beautiful things.”

Suzanne Sanders, a long time friend, worked at the story. She recalls first hand watching Lila pour hours into a dress alteration and hand-dyed shoes.

“She is amazing,” Sanders says.

“She was so good to everybody. It was so special to watch those girls get up on that stage with the mirrors and for one day feel like a princess.”
Sanders would often have her grandchildren visit the store. Lila Lee would sit with Sanders’ grandchildren out on Main Street and just watch the trucks go by. “She is a teacher at heart,” Sanders said.
In 2008, a gasoline leak from a service station on Main Street affected homes and businesses throughout the city. It ruined Lila Lee’s inventory, forcing her to close. But right after the close, she found herself serving at the Manti Temple.
Lila Lee is thrilled for Darin and Dawn Roberts, the new owners of the building in which she spent much of her life. She wishes them the best of luck in their business, the Chill Zone.

Her legacy is people like Bore, who describes her as “my very own fairy godmother, who knew which dress was the perfect one for me.”