This article is published through the Utah News Collaborative, a partnership of news organizations in Utah that aim to inform readers across the state.
The founder of Dolly’s Bookstore on Park City’s Main Street died Wednesday, June 12. Her friends remember her love of books, fun and animals.
Dolly Makoff was just shy of 94 years old. She grew up in the Salt Lake Valley and attended the University of Utah. While Dolly’s is foremost a bookstore, long time employee Liza Simpson says it has always sold more than books.
“We loved hearing the stories of when she [Dolly] first started the store, when it was books and women’s clothing because you couldn’t make enough money on one or the other to stay in business.”
Dolly was one of the first people Teri Orr – who went on to serve as the editor of the Park Record – met when she moved to town in 1979
“She took me right in and I said I was trying to be a writer and she said ‘you’re already a writer. You don’t try to be a writer. You’re a writer’,” Orr recalls. “And it was so lovely, her confidence. She was someone who enjoyed all kinds of books, which you would think would be obvious with a bookstore but it’s not always. She was a reader of everything.”
Dolly’s Bookstore opened in 1973. While the location changed over the years, it’s found its forever home at 510 Main Street.
To read the full story, visit KPCW.org.
