A former model who started a global fragrance company from a gathering of pine cones and nuts in her yard has died.
Patti Upton, founder of Aromatique Inc., died Tuesday at her home on Eden Isle in Heber Springs after a brief illness, according to the company. Upton turned 79 on Friday.
"Patti gave birth to this dynamic company literally 'just for fun' in 1982 by combining botanicals such as acorns, pine cones, gum balls and hickory nuts, and fragrancing them with spices, oils and ingenuity," according to the company's website, Aromatique.com. "She called her creation The Smell of Christmas and placed it in a friend's gift shop. It quickly turned into an over-night success."
That was the beginning of Aromatique. Now, the company's products are carried in Dillard's stores as well as other retailers. Customers have included Cher, Dionne Warwick, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush and Hillary Clinton, according to Southern Living magazine.
Upton was the first to artfully combine visual elements with fragrance, according to Aromatique.com.
Jimmy Clark, the mayor of Heber Springs, said the city of 7,165 people on Greers Ferry Lake in Cleburne County would be a very different city if it hadn't been for Aromatique.
"They employed a lot of people through the years," he said.
Stan Kennedy said Aromatique had a ripple effect through the economy. Upton hired Kennedy's Plant Truck Line of Heber Springs to deliver products. That doubled the trucking company's business.
"They allowed us to do their transportation at a time when we really needed it," Kennedy said.
"Aromatique and Patti Upton had as big an economic impact as any company that has originated in Heber Springs or Cleburne County," said Bill Lynch, president and CEO emeritus of Eagle Bank, formerly Heber Springs State Bank. "She was a female entrepreneur before that became a buzzword, because she started that company in a kitchen."
Aromatique also had an effect on adolescent behavior in Heber Springs.
Instead of collecting discarded Coke bottles to get a a few pennies from the grocery store, kids in Heber Springs collected stuff they could sell to Aromatique.
"My children used to scoop up pine cones and gum balls and take them down to their warehouse and get money for them," Clark said. "I just always thought they were crazy -- [the idea] that they could take leaves and limbs and spray fragrance on them and make millions of dollars. They sure proved me wrong."
"We still do," said Chad Evans, president and chief operating officer of Aromatique. "We still buy pine cones, gum balls and hickory nuts locally."
"Gum balls" are the hard, dry fruit of the sweetgum tree.
Patricia Pulliam Upton was born May 19, 1938, in Jonesboro.
She attended Stephens College in Columbia, Mo., before transferring to the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, where she was Miss University of Arkansas in 1959. While in Fayetteville, she met her future husband, Richard "Dick" Upton.
After graduation, Dick Upton served two years in the military. The couple then settled in West Memphis and Patti did some fashion modeling across the Mississippi River in Memphis.
On weekends, the family spent time on Greers Ferry Lake in Heber Springs and eventually moved there.
The Uptons have twin boys, Paige and Peyton.
In 1995, the Uptons bought the Red Apple Inn Country Club and Resort in Heber Springs. The 59-room inn was built in the mid-1960s.
"They immediately started improvements, renovating all the rooms," said Margie Wynne, conference director at the Red Apple Inn. "She did everything first-class. That's just who she was."
Upton didn't like the word potpourri to describe her products, Wynne said. Upton preferred the term "decorative fragrance."
The company's product line also includes candles, diffusers, oils, sprays and a bath line with a spray called Potty Pal.
Evans began working for Patti Upton at Aromatique in 1983.
"She was a giver. She wasn't a taker," Evans said. "She was strong. If she wanted something, she would make sure it was done the way she wanted. She wanted the best products she could put on the shelf."
Metro on 05/25/2017