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Brooksville lauds store founder

The owner of Rogers' Christmas House is honored as the 2003 Great Brooksvillian.

BROOKSVILLE - You can call Margaret Rogers Ghiotto a lot of things: Weenie, for one - it is her nickname.

But these days, call her the Great Brooksvillian.

In an award ceremony at City Hall on Monday, Ghiotto was presented the award - the first of its kind recognizing her work in the community. It also marked the third day of the city's Founders Week Celebration.

"It was very nice," said Ghiotto, the owner of Rogers' Christmas House Village.

Ghiotto, 87, thinks that she was not the first award winner but that Alfred McKethan, another Brooksville stalwart, was.

City officials said otherwise.

City clerk Karen Phillips said that Ghiotto was presented the award for all of her work at Rogers' Christmas House and making it a jewel of Brooksville.

Either way, Ghiotto will take her quick wit and award home with her.

She admitted that she had not been feeling well lately, but that would not keep her away from work.

"I am there almost every day," said Ghiotto in a slow, metered rhythm. "I have been doing it for a long, long time. I guess it's habit."

The habit started in the 1970s when she started running the business.

Besides, the Christmas House, Ghiotto owns several other parcels in the neighborhood. The Jennings House, which is located on Olive Street, is on the National Register of Historic Places.

On Sunday, she will be the grand marshal for Brooksville's Founders Day Parade.