When little Liz Tilman played outdoors she sometimes was in the shadow of Monarch Cements 300-foot smokestack. She and seven siblings lived in the last house on South Ninth Street, just inside Humboldt city limits.
Born in 1937 while the Great Depression will still a fact of life, Liz learned early to lend a helping hand.
Occasionally shed carry lunch to her dad, who worked in Monarchs quarry a quarter mile to the south. Liz would walk along the highway, climb over and between boulders along the quarrys wall, hop on a rock-hauling train and hand off the pail. Her return home followed the same path.
OSHA would have a fit today.
She relished opportunities to help her mother in the kitchen.
When pies were on the menu, mom would give Liz a dollop of dough to form into a miniature crust in a jar lid. After baking, Id eat it, Liz said.
That was the unlikely start of great commercial success for Liz.
After graduating from Humboldt High in 1955, she worked a year while her beau, Keith Smothers, attended his senior year. They then married. Keith, who died in 2010, followed his father into telegraphy, working for the Great Northern Railroad.
Eventually, he took a position with AT&T in Julian, Calif., an old mining town atop a mountain known for its apple orchards.
With five children, Liz helped with family finances working at a pie shop. I wasnt a commercial baker, but I knew I could follow instructions.
A job at a barbecue restaurant and another pie shop followed.
When a representative of Cosco asked about buying her pies for resale, Liz was impressed and inspired to give a go at owning her own shop.
She found a place on the edge of Julian. It really took off, she gushed.
Opening day she baked 100 pies and sold out. The next day, same story. After a brief hiatus to improve the shop, she was on the road to unimagined success.
She opened a second shop down the mountain in Santa Ysabel. Before long 140 stores in southern California were selling her brand, Julian Pies.
