Pioneering in business, Wright persevered
Retiring wasn’t in Mary Wright’s plan, but after 46 years running businesses in town, she’s slowing down and becoming more of a mentor.
A native of Garfield, Wright moved to Pea Ridge in 1959 with her husband, Jack, not long after they married. In 1973, they started Wright’s Laundromat on North Curtis Avenue next to the house in which they were then living and raising their five children.
In 1987, they built another commercial structure where the house had been, just north of the laundromat. Over the years, it served several different purposes, including an auto parts store. The building now houses Lori Rogers Agency, Farmers Insurance and an office for the car wash, which was constructed in 2001.
“Jack was a wheeler dealer. He always wanted something going,” Wright recalled. But then, in 2002, Jack died after an almost two-year battle with cancer. “I’ve had it pretty much myself for a long time, other than having a maintenance man.”
“Mrs. Mary is still in charge,” said Shane Perry, who is running the car wash and laundromat now.
Both Wright and her husband were natives of Garfield and 1959 graduates of Rogers High School. They had five children — Jackie, Gregory, Lori, Terri and Brian — and there are now nine grandchildren and one greatgranddaughter.
“I didn’t really want to retire, but it was time,” she said. “Healthwise, I needed to. I’m glad I was able to.”
She said her children helped over the years, but none really wanted to run the business. She said Greg helped his dad in the parts store before he started working for the post office.
Daughter Lori Rogers remembers working in the laundromat when she was young — cleaning out the washing machines and providing change for customers.
“Mrs. Mary is a pioneer running this by herself and raising her kids,” Perry said.
Wright remembers a customer complaining about the women running businesses in Pea Ridge — that a woman ran the funeral home, the car wash and the laundromat.
“They’re trailblazers,” Perry said, explaining that now there are many programs encouraging women in business but these women were doing it long before that. “Every time I don’t know what to do, I call her and she guides me. She’s my mentor.”
Perry recently got the automatic bay working after a few years of it being inoperable. He said he rebuilt it mechanically and put in new electronic eyes and sensors.
“Everything has to be really good for it to run and do all the cycles it does,” he said.
Always by her husband’s side in the early days of the business, Wright said she learned by watching. And then, when he died, she just kept on.
“I remember during the transition … Dad had not been gone much over a week and I called Mom. She didn’t answer,” Rogers said. “I came up here and there she was, cleaning the vacuums.
She just kept on plugging on.
“It was harder with Dad not being here. She already knew the business,” she said. “She had taken care of him and of the business.”
“Dad knew at the end of the day that Mom could run this,” she said.
“Oh, yeah, I had always helped him, so it wasn’t like I came in here blindfolded. I’m fairly observant,” Wright said. “I had picked up a lot over the years.
“It’s a seven/24 job,” she said. “You’ve got to check on it every day.”
She recalled that someone thought both the laundromat and car wash were simple and told Jack all he had to do was run a couple of garden hoses in there.
“It’s amazing what you see people do,” Wright said, adding that she’s had many good customers even some who offered to help her dump the trash when they saw her working. “It’s hard to be a car wash owner. It is outside work, in all kids of weather, all circumstances.”
Both Wright and Perry said there have been many surprises in the car wash, including finding a deer head, a deer skin, a toilet seat.
“It’s a very mechanical business,” Perry said. “Every time I don’t know what to do, I call Mrs. Mary. She has all the answers — she has determination and grit. She’s the hometown girl.”
“You’ve got to have help, to direct them and show them what to do. Somebody has to understand the big picture,” he said.
Wright recalled that many people thought she couldn’t do it when she was widowed. “But that made me more determined.”
“I think back to some of the things I had to do, it was God. To make sensible decisions, sometimes hard times,” she recalled. “Being willing is the main thing. If I’d thrown a fit and said I wasn’t going to, I wouldn’t have succeeded.”
She credited her father, E.J. Bennett who was a hard worker and taught her the value of work. “He taught us to work hard whether you make much money or not.”
“The greatest thing,” Wright said, “is my kids and all of them believe in God. That’s always been something I treasure. And most of my grandkids do, too.”