Dexter woman has collected 200 Avon cologne bottles

Sacha Champion photo - Maxine Lemons of Dexter displays a few of the more than 200 Avon cologne bottles she has been collecting since the mid-1950's. Lemons has not only the "Modes of Transportation" collection but a gun collection, Christmas collection and several types of wildlife bottles as well.

Maxine Lemons grew up in Delta, Mo., located in Cape County, close to Cape Girardeau. She graduated from high school there and attended Southeast Missouri State University in Cape Girardeau for a short time.

"I met my husband, William Russell Lemons, when I was living in Delta," said Lemons. "I started attending college but then I decided that I would rather get married than continue my education."

The two were married on Dec. 6, 1941, the day before the attack on Pearl Harbor by the Japanese. By the time their first wedding anniversary rolled around, the couple had their one and only child, a little boy also named William Russell.

Maxine stayed at home with her son until he was approximately seven months old before she began working outside the home again.

"I taught school in Blodgett for one year," said Lemons. "After that year was up, I knew that was something that I never wanted to do again."

So, in 1945, the Lemons family moved to Dexter and Maxine took a job at Elder Manufacturing. She would work there for the next 45 years before retiring. But it was while she was working at Elder Manufacturing that Maxine developed a bit of an obsession.

That obsession came in the form of an Avon catalogue.

"There was a woman who worked there and she would bring the book in to work," said Lemons. "We would look through it and if there was anything we wanted, we would just place our order with her."

The "addiction" began harmlessly enough, according to Lemons. She liked splash cologne, not very common today, because it wasn't quite as strongly scented as spray cologne, but was still stronger than toilet water.

But it was more than just the scented liquid that drew Maxine's attention. Once the bottle was empty, she just couldn't bring herself to throw it out.

"The bottles are very pretty," said Lemons. "When I would empty them, I would just put water in them colored with food coloring."

Soon, Maxine began to purchase bottles for her husband as well. There were bottles in the shapes of "Modes of Transportation," or antique cars and trucks. There were bottles shaped like antique guns that now decorate Maxine's two end tables in her living room.

"It got to the point that my husband was getting these for every holiday," said Lemons. "It didn't matter if it was a birthday, anniversary, Christmas or whatever, this is what he got for a gift.

"He really liked them and he only got aggravated with me when it came time to dust all of them."

Maxine purchased her first bottle in 1954 or 1955. When the couple built their home, on Glenstone Road in Dexter, they had special shelves made to hold the bottles. While the home was being built, according to Maxine, the bottles were stored in a shed behind the home during the winter months and some ended up shattering because the water inside them froze. But soon the remaining bottles were safe and sound upon their custom-made shelves inside the family's living room.

Today, Maxine is both a grandmother and a great-grandmother, having two of one and five of the other. Her husband died nine years ago and since that time she has had a heart attack that prompted the placement of a pacemaker in her chest and has had both of her knees replaced.

She volunteers at the Stoddard County Gospel Mission every Monday, Tuesday and Thursday morning and does volunteer work at the Keller Public Library every Wednesday afternoon. She enjoys embroidering and keeping up with her family members. She used to enjoy taking care of her yard, but is unable to do that anymore.

And as she looks around her home, everywhere there are Avon bottles. According to Maxine's last count, there are more than 200 of them scattered about -- some still on the custom-made shelves, but others on the end tables, other wall shelves and even sitting in just about every windowsill in her home.

"I don't buy as many anymore because they are harder to find today," said Lemons. "Sometimes I can go out to the flea market and find some there or someone will do some spring cleaning and bring them into the mission and I can buy them from there.

"Some have even been gifts from my granddaughter because she was able to find some and knew that I would love them."

Besides just beautifully shaped, colored bottles and the bottles shaped like modes of transportation, Maxine has bottles shaped like horses, cowboys riding horses, steers, turkeys, pheasants, ducks and even a collection of bottles that she uses for Christmas decorating.

"You just don't see many of these anymore today," said Lemons with a laugh. "If I had known how rare they'd be today, I would have put them all under glass … then we wouldn't have had to dust them."

Sacha Champion may be reached via e-mail at schampion@dailystatesman.com