STILL AGLOW AFTER ALL OF THESE YEARS

I have the privilege of owning a small, family business.  Over the years, I've come to realize just how lucky I really am.  Meet our family here at OCF!  My folks are Dave and Dora Stewart, founders of Osage Candle Factory.  Simple, friendly, humble, and respectable is the first that comes to mind.

My Mother is the original candle maker in the family.  Born in Sikeston, MO.  She was number 7 of 10 kids.  They migrated to Phoenix, Arizona when she was 10, due to my Grandfather developing tuberculosis.  At that time, Phoenix wasn’t the metropolis that it is today.  She went to a one-room schoolhouse in Buckeye, Arizona and lived the life of a farmer’s daughter.  Her schoolteacher happened to be a candle maker.  She took my Mom under her wing and inspired in her a love of the craft.  From that point on, Mom knew what she wanted to do for the rest of her life.

My Dad is a Arizona native, born and raised in Phoenix. He's the only surviving child of my Grandmother, who was separated from her family in Old Hungary during the war.  She lost her husband to a heart attack when my Dad was a baby and lost her first born son before my Dad was born.  She was a strong woman; she didn’t have a choice and she raised my Dad to be the strong man he has been my entire life.

My folks met, in their early twenties, while working at Valley National Bank in Phoenix.  It was love at first sight and if you ask them, they can tell you what each other was wearing the first time they met.  They married in February of 1966.  Evidently the bug to make candles was infectious and my Dad was a quick study.  He has always been a “Jack of all trades”.  Candles became the gift they gave during the Holidays, and at that time, they didn’t have much else to give.  They also became the proud parents of two ornery kids; my brother, David, born in Alameda, California and myself, MaTonya, born in Oakland, California.

Our family moved to Missouri in 1977.  As time went on, my folks always had the dream to turn their hobby into a full-time business.  In 1979 they bought out their first candle factory in Columbia, Missouri (which was basically a small amount of equipment).  They continued to make candles part-time, buying out two more factories until they opened up their shop here at Lake Ozark in 1993.  My Brother and I both went off into the world, and lived our lives like all kids do leaving the nest.  He's the proud father of 4 beautiful boys and he continues to be involved in the family business as he is the co-caretaker of our website, which he and my Dad do together.  I moved back to Missouri, from Florida in 1995 and even during most of my collage career, have been here at the factory working with my folks.  I guess I have developed the candle-making bug as well.  We have a family joke that wax must run through our veins.  And as for my folks, after 45 years together, they are still very much in love and still working with me here at the Factory (I teasingly say “8 days a week”).  I officially took over the business in 2007 and allowed the folks to “retire, part-time” and I say that in jest because I can't keep them outta the wax!!!  I wouldn't have it any other way.

Our Factory is not just an occupation or a business.  It’s a place where we can work together, doing what we love to do, together.  We feel that our customers are an extension of our family; we appreciate you so much which is why we tend to chat your ear off when you come in!  We can do what we love doing simply because you love what we do.  As Dad likes to say, “Anyone can make a candle, but making a candle that turns you into a regular customer takes more than a little art.”  Stop by the factory and if you haven't already met the family, by all means, do so !!!

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