When Deloris “Dee” Arps first arrived in Worland over 80 years ago, they were driving cattle down Main Street on their way to the ranches and the town was only two blocks long. Arps is 108 years and 6 months old and has seen the town transform over the decades.
“There were only about 15 members that belonged to the Worland Parish when we came to Wyoming,” Arps said. “And now look at it, you can hardly get them in church. Our whole town has really grown.”
Dee and her husband Leonard “Len” Arps owned several businesses over the years, including East Side Drive-In Liquor, originally known as Len’s Liquor.
Arps said that they kept very busy, and it made her nervous to have certain people coming into the store. She came up with a solution, but first had to get it through the Wyoming Legislature.
“I invented the idea of having windows on both sides and served through the window, rather than letting the people come in,” Arps said. “That way they could just stay in their car to order.”
That's how she became the first drive-thru liquor store in the state.
Arps said that the secret to her long life is hard work and her determination to keep going even when it was difficult.
“Somebody was always depending on me,” Arps said. “I'd go to work and work all day and be sick half of the night and then get up the next morning and go to work.”
Over the years, Arps said that she and her husband worked well together and raised two children, Sharon and Daniel, who they are proud of.
Sadly, they also lost a son and a daughter both as infants. They are interred in the Worland cemetery.
Recently Arps had broken her hip in a fall.
That same determination that got Dee through the Depression has her now tackling rehabilitation and already taking walks around her hospital room.
A Wyoming Dream
Dee Arps was born in 1917, the second of eight children.
She grew up in Nebraska during the Great Depression and remembers six long years of no crops. Her parents struggled to keep the family home and still made sure their children would get an education.
“We lived 4 miles from school, and we walked or drove there in a horse and buggy,” Arps said. “Didn't make any difference what kind of weather.”
She said that there was a barn at the school for their horses and they would hook the horses back up after class was let out at 4 p.m. However, when her father needed the horses at home on the farm, the children walked.
“I have always loved Wyoming,” Arps said. “When I was a kid, I read any books I could about Wyoming, and I always wanted to live here. I just love that outdoor living and the wide-open spaces.”
Years later, Len came back to Nebraska to court Dee after working in Wyoming. When he asked her to go back with him, she was elated.
“He said he'd never go to Wyoming alone again,” Arps said. “We got married on June 25 and we were in Wyoming on the Fourth of July.”
The couple had only $25 and no job prospects when they set off for their new life in the Cowboy State, but they were both willing to take a chance.
“It took us two days from Nebraska to Wyoming because the roads were so bad,” Arps said. “It was a different world.”
Len's grandmother had sent canned food with the newlyweds which they survived on for that first week. On their second day in Worland, Len got a job at the Wyoming Sugar Beet Company.
“People really helped one another and we got by,” Arps said. “But I made it a point that from every paycheck, I put $5 in our savings account. It was hard work.”
Len had bought a little skid trailer and the couple lived in it for the next three years as they saved up money.
Furnace Business
According to Arps, her husband did not pass his physical for the military because of a heart condition he didn't even know he had. Instead, Len kept working and at one point, helped build the Heart Mountain Internment Center.
He finally got a permanent job with Wyoming Gas and after he got off from a full day of work, Len would install furnaces in his own side business.
Right after the war ended in December 1945, the couple opened Arp's Plumbing and Heating and Appliances in Greybull which they ran for the next six years. They also founded another plumbing store in Worland and in 1951, a new opportunity was given to them when the liquor laws changed in Wyoming.
“One day, the law, the legislature made a rule that the drug stores could no longer own liquor licenses,” Arps said. “The druggist offered us the city license and all we owed was $600 for it.”
At first, Arps was hesitant but after three weeks, decided to try running the store. She ended up paying off their debt in a month and selling liquor for the next 25 years.
“I worked hard,” Arps said. “I went to work at 9 a.m. and didn't get home till 11p.m. at night. If I had a spare minute that somebody would relieve me, I'd run home and do the work I had to do at home and get the meals and go back to work.”
Arps was also active with community service, especially the Democratic party. She was appointed to the Travel Commission in the 1970s and worked tirelessly to promote the state she adored.
“I was so glad my children enjoyed Wyoming and wanted to stay here, too,” Arps said. “I love it here and thank God every day because he gave us this beautiful place.”
Jackie Dorothy can be reached at jackie@cowboystatedaily.com.
