Former Blair resident Bill Rodgers, 95, of Sanford Fla., died Wednesday, May 7, 2003, in Sanford. A memorial service is planned for Monday, May 12, in Sanford.

Bill Rodgers was born Oct. 18, 1907, In Monongahela, Penn., to Bill and Louise Rodgers. He was the youngest of seven children. He moved with his family to Blair in 1913.

Growing up in Blair as the country approached Prohibition, he was invited to ride on the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) floats, but his Scottish immigrant father wouldn’t let him.

He worked with his father in the florist business in Blair, where they owned several greenhouses and the Blair Florist retail business. They wholesaled their overages in Omaha, where he met Carolyn Keeney. He married her 83 days later, on May 29, 1936. The couple enjoyed 64 years of loving partnership before Mrs. Rodgers died in 2000.

Mr. Rodgers worked in the florist business all his life and lived and worked in Denver, Colo., Chicago, Ill., and Macon Ga., before moving to Sanford. He finished his career as the general manager of a florist warehouse and distribution company in Sanford.

He enjoyed fishing and he and wife liked a “wee dram” of whiskey each afternoon. Friends at Chambral Retirement Village and family and friends throughout the country will miss him.

He is survived by his nephew, Bill Keeney, and wife, Eileen, of Satellite Beach, Fla., and Larry Ostrom of Snellville, Ga., and close and caring friends, Barbara Dangleman of Maitland, Fla., and George Weld of Sanford, Fla.