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Bedinger’s Ethan Allen is closing its doors after 64 years in business as a furniture store on the Liberty Square.

Owner Mike Bedinger declined to comment, but customers hoping to find a bargain, crowded into the store Nov. 5, the first day of the sale.

An invitation to attend the sale, announced the closing as “a huge quitting business retirement sale.”

“We are closing our doors forever. All of our merchandise, store fixtures, furniture and equipment must be sold,” said the letter signed by owners Mike and Kathy Bedinger.

George and Fay Bedinger, Mike Bedinger’s parents, opened the furniture store at the northeast corner of Water and Kansas streets in 1946.

Fay Bedinger said the closing was a sign of the economic times and because of illness in the family. She said she was not sad to see the store close.

“It’s time for a change,” she said. “I’m glad to see Mike getting out of it. He should be enjoying life.”

Bedinger said she met George while both were serving in the military during World War II, married and moved to Liberty in 1945. She opened a beauty shop in the First National Bank building on the southwest corner of Main and Kansas streets and George ran the furniture store with his mother. George had previously worked in the furniture department at the Jones Store in downtown Kansas City. After George’s mother’s health failed, Bedinger joined her husband in the business in 1953.

The space now occupied by Bedinger’s Ethan Allen, was formerly a bus station, she said.

“His dad told him it was going to be vacant and rent was $90 a month,” Bedinger said. “George said ‘I think I’m going to open a furniture store’ and he did on Aug. 3, 1946.”

In 1987, the couple opened Georgetown Furniture on Mill Street.

Their children, Mike Bedinger and Sue Baird, followed their parents into the furniture business. Under the ownership of Mike and Kathy Bedinger, the Square store became an Ethan Allen. Baird and her husband, Ben, took over Georgetown, which closed a couple years ago.

Harvey Seely, who owns Harvey’s Barber Shop, said his business had been on the Square for 55 years almost as long as the furniture store.

“I really hate to see them go. They’ve been a mainstay on the Square for as long as I’ve been here,” Seely said. “When I married my first wife in 1957, we bought furniture at Bedinger’s. It was good stuff. It was good quality.”

Vicki Vance, program manager for Historic Downtown Liberty Inc., a downtown booster, said she also hated to see the store close but appreciated all the Bedingers had done over the years to help the central business district succeed.

“It saddened me to see the pink paper go up on the windows,” Vance said. “The Bedingers have always been supporters of the community. I don’t even know how you’d measure all they brought to the community.”

Liberty Editor Angie Anaya Borgedalen can be reached at 781-4941 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

Comments (1)

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Furniture stores
written by Charlie, January 14, 2010

This is a shame.
I have not seen any closings where I live now. It's so nice to have a variety of stores close to you so you can get the best furniture deals after comparing and visiting some showrooms...
This is a good place to look for furniture on-line: www.roomstogo.com

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