PEORIA MAGAZINE October 2023

MOM AND POP

NEED A PAROCHIAL SCHOOL UNIFORM? For almost a century, Lagron-Miller Company has been meeting central Illinois’ religious supply needs (and a potential saint once worked there)

BY BOB GRIMSON PHOTOS BY RON JOHNSON

S ince being formally incorpo rated by Naomi Lagron and Ida Miller, a rarity for two women in 1925, the eponymous purveyor of Christian books and other goods has built relationships with churches and churchgoers throughout central Illinois. It’s those relationships that appeal to current Lagron-Miller Company owner David Gould. “We’re filling a niche. People need it,” he said. “One of the most rewarding things is hearing those connections. There’s a lot of things here that bring (customers) back to a memory of their youth or a faith-driven feeling.” Gould, the second-generation op erator of the family-based business across from Northwoods Mall at 4517 N. Sterling Ave., added jokingly: “Nothing can bring back memories like a plaid (parochial school) jumper.”

IF IT’S RELIGIOUS, LAGRON-MILLER HAS IT (OR CAN GET IT) Raised in the business his father acquired in the 1970s, when it was at its longtime Main Street location across from Campustown, Gould was exposed early to the vicissitudes of a family business. “My mom worked alongside my dad for many years. Growing up in a family business you learned what a lot of work it is … I saw my dad up repairing a leaky roof and emptying garbage.” The store offers retail items ranging from key rings and Bibles to handmade European art pieces and parochial-school uniforms. But there’s also a wholesale operation geared more to churches that need items as varied as candles, kneelers and incense.

Gould estimates that 70% of La gron-Miller’s business is wholesale church supplies, with the remaining retail moving through the storefront and online sales. “They are two separate entities run out of the same business,” he said. The company accomplishes that with up to 10 full-time workers. Gould noted that a case of church candles may weigh more than 30 pounds and churches may order dozens of cases at a time. A pair of Lagron-Miller vans traverse the 26-county Diocese of Peoria a couple times a week making deliveries to churches and schools. They also track purchases so they know, through experience and history, when a church will probably need to reorder “It’s been the go-to place for decades. … If they don’t have it, they know how to get it,” said Father Bill Miller, pastor of

28 OCTOBER 2023 PEORIA MAGAZINE