A Littlefield fairy tale, 85 years in the making

LITTLEFIELD, Texas (KCBD) - It sounds like a fairy tale. A young boy at an orphanage in El Paso grows up to become the mayor of Littlefield.

Today, Kip Cutshall is forever grateful to the man who made that happen, and much more.

“Welfare lady keeping up with my case said, your dad’s in Littlefield,” Cutshall said.

It was during hard times. Most of the 15 brothers and sisters in this family had been adopted when Kip Cutshall got the call that his dad, an army recruiter, was willing to take him in Littlefield.

“‘Want to go?” I said ‘sure!’” said Cutshall.

It was a dream come true, playing football at Littlefield High School, until his dad was called to Amarillo and then off to Greenland.

“I was fixing to be a senior in high school and I didn’t have any place to go or anything, and Mr. Chisholm found out about it,” he said.

Mr. Chisholm ran a small flower shop in Littlefield and took in Kip so he could finish high school and make a life for himself.

“Mr. Chisholm said, ‘I’ll put you through college.’ And then after I got out, he called me and said, ‘Well, what do you think about flowers?’ I love flowers.”

Sixty-five years later, Kip is running Chisholm Flower Shop. Ten years before Mr. Chisholm died, he made Kip a partner in the business.

“Oh, he taught me so much. Taught me honesty, integrity, how to treat people and do right and do the best job you can.”

Mr. Chisholm served seven terms as mayor in Littlefield. And later, Kip was elected mayor, too. But the flower shop was their destiny.

“Well, he opened the place in ‘36. Same year I was born,” said Cutshall.

Now, 85 years later, Kip says it’s time to retire. In fact, he closed the flower shop weeks ago. He said his last day was July 1, but customers kept calling.

“I did two birthdays yesterday. I tried to tell them we were closed...”

And we were there when another customer called.

Phyllis and Kip were high school sweethearts. They’ve been married for more than 50 years.

They’re still taking orders, even though the flower shop is closed. There is no for sale sign on the building. Kip says it would be hard to do that.

After all, they still have flowers, even though the shop is closed.

At the end of the day, when Kip and Phyllis close up and walk away, they’ll be back tomorrow because it is hard to walk away from a fairy tale that has lasted 85 years.

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