Floral artist and flower shop owner Edna Mae Dwyer made her aesthetic mark on church altars, banquet tables and the wrists and lapels of teenage promgoers. Mrs. Dwyer, 80, who ran her family’s G.S. Maday Flower Shop at 2622 E. 83rd St. for 30 years, died of cancer Monday, June 26, in her daughter’s home in La Grange Park. Born in Chicago, Mrs. Dwyer grew up in the sprawling flower and plant business her parents started in 1924. Her specialty was designing corsages and arranging flowers for important events, gathering roses, orchids and other blooms to create bouquets that drew admiring glances from almost everyone who saw them, said her son, Jim Dwyer. “She got a real high out of designing arrangements, when customers would come back and tell her how beautiful the flowers were,” her son said. “To her, relaxing was working. She just lived what she loved.” At Christmas time, Mrs. Dwyer grew at least 1,000 poinsettias for churches, hospitals and nursing homes, often selling them at cost because her customers were nonprofit groups, her son said. At her home near the store, she grew flowers and corn, but gave it up after her husband died in 1959, when she grew busy with work and child rearing. She sold the business and retired in 1996. In addition to her son, survivors include three daughters, Susan Dwyer, Patrice Gilbert and Diane Pincombe ; a sister, Martha Marczak ; and five grandchildren. Mass will be said at 10 a.m. Friday in St. Mary Magdalene Church, 8426 S. Marquette Ave., Chicago.
