LANSING, Mich. -- Pauline Martin, one of the co-founders of the Lansing, Mich.-based convenience store chain Quality Dairy Co., died Wednesday at the age of 95.
Martin started the business with her late husband, Gregory, and Harvey and Mildred Mack in 1936. She remained active in the company until two or three years ago, her son, Alan Martin, told the Lansing State Journal.
"She attended sales meetings and sometimes spoke at them," he said. "She had a passion for good family relationships and a good, strong German work ethic coupled with a good sense of religion [image-nocss] and morals."
Pauline Martin was born in the town of Westphalia in 1914 and married Gregory Martin in 1938, two years after Quality Dairy opened for business. They were married for 45 years.
Alan Martin said his mother was proud that Quality Dairy became an icon of Lansing, growing to become a chain of 31 stores that employs approximately 700 people. But she rarely spoke publicly about the success.
"That was for family," he told the newspaper. "She was not a braggy kind of person, not at all."
A funeral mass was held Saturday. Memorials can be made to National Assoc. of Mental Illness, P.O. Box 26101, Lansing, Mich., 48909.
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