Nancy Silver knew how to throw a party.
As co-owner of The Paper Place in Old Town Scottsdale, she helped customers order wedding invitations, graduation announcements and a card to express just about any sentiment. You might have come to the shop for an invitation — but you left with recs for everything from a florist to a venue to a theme.
And, if you were lucky, you got to visit with one of Silver's dogs. Her other passion was the Two Pups Wellness Fund she founded to help cover medical expenses for shelter and rescue animals.
Silver passed away in October of this year. As 2024 comes to a close, we're remembering members of the community who made a mark on Arizona. Today we're hearing from Betsy Hendricks and Bob Silver, Nancy's sister and brother.
Full conversation
BETSY HENDRICKS: She was a visionary, I think, and always ahead of her time. And I would say, “You need to listen to Nancy, wait five years and then act on it.”
When we were kids, I think she and mom had already opened the store, and we were on vacation in Hawaii. And we were going through — a card store maybe, or something. And she’s like, “You know, I think it could be a really good idea. What if we, like, served coffee and then people could sit and write their cards and maybe sell stamps or anything?”
And this is before Starbucks. We were like, “What do you mean, sell coffee? How stupid is that?”
And she also started a company called Status Strips, which were designer Band-Aids. And this was before any of the Band-Aid companies were putting cartoon characters or anything on the Band-Aids.
BOB SILVER: And they were all designer knockoffs.
HENDRICKS: Yeah, kind of like a Gucci-looking one.
SILVER: Lacoste, like there’s a little alligator on one. She just knew how to turn a phrase or have a vision and I think everybody at this store talks about how they'll be working on something and struggling with that for hours, and Nancy will come look in and go, “Well …” and just tell them what to do and make it perfect.
Forty-seven years in business. That’s just so many weddings and birth announcements and graduation parties. And I’m sure that there are so many people in this town where Nancy did their wedding, their kids’ birth announcements, all their all their kids’ graduations announcements, their kids’ wedding and their grandkids’ birth announcements. And you cannot be that involved in kind of the lifecycle of events of a family and not kind of feel part of them.
Her poker parties were kind of legendary, with all of her friends that would go to wee hours of the night. And of course, dinner would be served at 10 o’clock because she was making too much food and trying to do too much.
And then her JewEaster or Jeaster parties, which was her Passover-Easter mashup. That would have one of the most ferocious and coveted deviled eggs competitions. And people would go over the top to win this competition. To the point where one year, someone — and it was again, like Nancy, it was form over substance often — they had like a chicken coop. They serve their eggs. They brought into Nancy’s backyard a chicken coop with live chickens and served their deviled eggs.
HENDRICKS: It was baby chicks.
SILVER: With baby chicks. And again, that was part of kind of the fun that she created.
HENDRICKS: I’m the younger sister, and she didn’t like me saying no to her, like when we do our buying or something. But again, I needed her input. But then half the time, she would buy everything. The dollar didn’t ever really mean much to her. She never quite got it, what it’s value is at.
But luckily she had a little ADD, and she would sit in the office and get bored. So she would walk out, and I’d be with the rep, and I’m like, “Take that off, take that off, take that off.” So I’d say yes, but then I’d turn around and take it off. And I know she’d never remember.
But it just, I don’t I don’t know, it just worked. There were days that it was hard. But we always had each other’s back.
SILVER: Life was her guilty pleasure. She just always found a way to have fun.
