Williams' Find their Niche in the Greenhouse Business (1995 excerpts from Roane County News)

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"When Janie and Ralph Williams moved to the farm off Pine Ridge Road in 1938, they had no clue how they would spend their retirement. After raising three children, Helen, Mary and Allen, Mrs. Williams decided she would love to have a greenhouse.

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Mr. Williams eventually sold the dairy cows and planned to retire, but when his grandsons and son-in-law orchestrated converting the dairy barn into a greenhouse, a new business was born in 1976. Mrs. Williams was blessed with a green thumb, and the plants thrived, selling out after just a short time. Through word of mouth, the business bloomed and another greenhouse was added. With the second greenhouse, daughter and son-in-law Helen and Doug Whaley started spending all the time when they weren't teaching in the Knoxville school system, at the new business. 

 

Eventually, in 1988, Mrs. Whaley left her teaching position to work at the greenhouse full time and give her parents a rest. In that period, five more buildings were erected. Mr. Whaley retired in 1992, but spring found him more often than not in the greenhouses."

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To this day, Helen Whaley continues her day-to-day operation overseeing 27 greenhouses growing a variety of plants year round. Mrs. Whaley has always stressed that she could not run the greenhouses without her valued employees, which includes many full-time individuals. Among the full-time employees are Helen's niece Christy and grandsons Nick and Andrew. She also stresses that she could not have done it all without her husband Doug Whaley, who sadly passed away in 2020. 

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