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Here’s an exercise that can help you learn about yourself without going through years of psychoanalysis. Pick up a pen and paper, and as quickly as possible make a list of things you’d like to do or places you’d like to see before you’re…

Marie Robertson and her twin sister, Maggie Dethrow, are dancing their way through life — with grace and style. Dance is how they’ve made their living. Dance connects them to hundreds of Columbia’s children and adults. And dance is a love…

James Owen is in the midst of a busy afternoon at the Columbia headquarters of Renew Missouri. Yesterday, he was in Springfield. Tomorrow, he’ll be in Kansas City. As he sits before his desktop computer, his iPhone watch begins to vibrate.…

There is something reassuring about Matt Moore’s presence. Maybe it’s the steady, calm tone of his voice. Maybe it’s his thoughtful demeanor or his old-style manner of making a guest feel at home. He’s formal, dressed in his ironed white…

Like a movie-set built for a 1940s Hollywood film, the Chatol House and Gardens (pronounced Sha-tall) in Centralia preserves the look and feel of another era. Guests passing through its doors find themselves stepping back to a time when…

Romana Mack is Roaring Ahead A Harley Davidson Sportster 1200 weighs 591 pounds. Romana Mack does not. Although she is in no way intimidated by her Harley, she takes a cautious, commonsense approach to riding. After all, she’s not one of…

It could be said that Anna Marie Knipp is a horse-tradin’, horse-ridin’, cart-pullin’ pony driver. But among the upper echelons of American Saddlebred enthusiasts, Knipp is better known as a sophisticated equine breeder, businesswoman and…

On the way to his third-floor office, Gary Ward steps with an even, determined pace across the star-patterned floor tiles of Jesse Hall. It’s 8 a.m., and he has just finished his morning workout. His day started three hours earlier as he…

John Ott is giving a new life to a Columbia building that housed an old funeral home. Located on the corner of Ninth and Walnut streets, Parker Funeral Home is being transformed into an events center with seating for 450 people and standing…

Everything about Cindy Lou’s Glass Studio goes toward making fused-glass art a fun and fulfilling experience. First, there’s the unlikely setting — a gas station, complete with gas pumps, a tall Sinclair dinosaur sign, reception area and…

The CEO and the president of one of the Midwest’s fastest growing ecommerce sites are sitting next to each other on a large couch in their south Columbia home. Business titles don’t fit Sam and Jesse Bodine well. After 13 years of marriage,…

Located in a chocolate-colored building on the corner of S. Fifth and Cherry Street, Flat Branch Home Loans blends inconspicuously into its surroundings. Anyone driving by would think they spotted just another local business in a restored…

Several times each year, Scott Robinson packs enough clothes for a week, kisses his wife Cindi goodbye, jumps onto his Harley Davidson, then heads for the highways that crisscross the country. Unlike the stereotypical Harley Davidson…

The scene at 10 a.m. on a Monday inside Ernie’s Café and Steakhouse is one that is happening at countless diners across the country. At one end of the counter, near the front door, a waitress, dressed casually in shorts and an apron, is…

Allen’s Flowers is a perennial of a business that has thrived in mid-Missouri’s economic environment for the past 76 years. No matter the season, its floral arrangements have made homes and celebrations more festive. And the quiet beauty of…

While businesses that last generations are rare, Columbia is host to a number of companies that have served mid-Missouri throughout the ages. They have survived the ups and downs of business cycles, but they keep their doors open and…

Legacy and family businesses are rare. They not only survive the ups and downs of business cycles, but they keep their doors open and customers keep coming in for lifetimes, sometimes for three or four generations. Three local legacy…

About 100 years ago, an immigrant from Lebanon made his way from Ellis Island to Jefferson City. He knew very little English, but that didn’t stop him from starting a shoe repair business that eventually became the American Shoe Store. If…

Diamonds may be forever, but the same can’t be said for the jewelry shops that sell them. Robert Flynn, general manager of L.C. Betz Associates, has more realistic goals. He’s ensuring that a Columbia legacy business remains a prominent…

Parents returning to Columbia for a football game or to drop their college students off for the semester might stop by Booches on 9th Street for the nostalgia. The place oozes with it. But it’s not the nostalgia that brings in the students…