GULFPORT - Millions and millions of four-leaf clovers must add up to a whole lot of good luck.
They did for William Daniels, a longtime clover grower who helped build his dad's hobby into a charming business.
He once said he was a firm believer in the lucky powers of four-leaf clovers.
"I believe it," he said. "I've had a really happy and full life. I've had a good marriage, a good family and great (as in wonderful) grandchildren. How lucky can you get?"
He and his sister, Marion Warwick, were part of a family that marketed the clovers, nearly all of them from a small Gulfport farm, for 44 years. Mr. Daniels, who sold the business in 1982 and retired, died Monday (May 3, 2004) at an Ocala hospice. He was 88 and lived in Dunnellon.
At the time of his retirement, Daniels Clover Specialty Manufacturing Co. on Ninth Avenue S employed 20 people and was expected to gross about $300,000 that year, Mr. Daniels said.
About 6-million clovers were grown at a time. Hand-picked, they were sorted by size, then bleached, dyed green and dried before being turned into decorations for calendars or key chains.
Only the best clovers became lucky charms. About half had the wrong number of leaves (usually three or five, but as many as nine) and were thrown out.
Some were sold plain in packages of 5,000 for $250. But most of the company's business came from making the clovers into a variety of good luck charms.
Among the most popular was a wallet-sized calendar. The company sold 1.3-million in 1982.
Other novelties included letter openers and money clips made on a plastic molding machine in the Daniels plant.
The family's future began taking shape in the 1920s when a patch of clover popped up in the Panama Canal Zone lawn of Charles T. Daniels, the father of Mr. Daniels and Mrs. Warwick. Interested since childhood in plants and genetics, their father began experimenting in hopes of producing a clover with mostly four leaves.
When he succeeded, the word spread. In 1938, he got his first order - for 1-million clovers. He retired from his job with the Bell System and transferred the business to Gulfport in 1944.
William Francis Daniels, a Mount Kisco, N.Y., native, moved to Gulfport and took over operation of the business with his sister in 1947. A brother, Charles J. Daniels, an engineer, also was a partner but did not have a role in operations.
Marion Warwick died in 1987 in St. Petersburg. Mr. Daniels' survivors include his wife of 62 years, Nancy C.; three daughters, Marilyn Hicks, Macon, Ga., Kathryn Arent, Portsmouth, R.I., and Elizabeth J. Daniels, Largo; a brother, Charles J., Falls Church, Va.; five grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.
A memorial service will be held at 11 a.m. Thursday at Dunnellon Presbyterian Church, to which he belonged. Roberts Funeral Home, Dunnellon, is in charge of arrangements.
- Information from Times files was used in this obituary.
