by Jackie Nunnery
Kids are often asked what they want to be when they grow up, but it is seldom that the wish actually comes true. For as long as she can remember, Katherine “Katie” Crowther told everyone who asked that she would one day run the family business, Lilian Lumber and Home Center in Burgess.
Now assistant vice president of the company, her passion for helping people make a house a home resulted in Crowther being named a Rising Star in the Top Women in Hardware and Building Supply, a two-day event held in Chicago in early November. The event is held by Hardware and Building Supply Dealer, a national trade publication.
Crowther, the fifth generation to manage the business along with her father William Crowther, was nominated by Chase Williamson, the territory sales manager at Do It Best, a hardware and building supply cooperative that Lilian joined in 2018.
“Katie Crowther identified an underserved market in Burgess,” Williamson said. “Turning her vision into a fully developed reality, she opened Lilian’s She Shed under the now much bigger roof. I watched as she poured her passion….
