Makinson ran the oldest hardware store in the state

By Ken Jackson
Staff Writer

Makinson’s Hardware Store, on Broadway in the heart of downtown Kissimmee, has come to be known as “the store with the horse out front” for passers-by.

If it was real, the brown horse atop the iconic sign would have likely bowed its head in mourning this week after the passing of one of the store’s owners, Leon Makinson.

Makinson, known throughout the community and within the family as “Buster,” lost his battle with cancer on Monday at the age of 72 in the presence of family and friends.

After starting his career in hardware sales, Makinson went to work full time in the store in the early 1960’s and operated it for the next 50 years. Leon’s grandfather, William B. Makinson Sr., founded the store in 1884, and it is now the longest-running retail hardware store operating in Florida. Buster came to call Makinson Hardware “the store with everything a settler might need.”

He and his wife, Elaine, bought out brother Bill’s share of the store in 2001, when Buster remolded the store and brought in some new product lines in a general re-inventing.

Even in age and sickness, Buster remained part of the day-to-day operations.

“He was still the boss right up until when he passed,” Elaine said. “Last year when he was sick, on days he felt up to it we’d take him up there and he’d sit at his desk and go over things that got put out for him.”

Born Aug. 18, 1940, in Kissimmee, the third in W.B. and Maxyne Waters Makinson’s five-child family, Buster Makinson graduated from Osceola High School in 1958. He met Elaine in 1972, when she was working at Gateway Ford, which was across Broadway at the time, as a secretary. They married a year later.

“He saw me from across the street and eventually bought a car, a used Toronado, so he could meet me,” she said. “After a year, it blew up.”

Through the years, Buster and his wife and family kept the store going through economic ups and downs and the proliferation of large chain hardware stores. Buster’s mantra was to treat all customers the same, whether they were buying a 50-cent fastener or a $500 piece of equipment.

“Offer great customer service and keep the customer happy, and they’ll keep coming back. That’s what we’ve always been about,” Elaine said. “Buster always made sure to keep up with the times.”

An avid Osceola Kowboys, Florida Gators and NASCAR fan, Buster is preceded in death by his brother W.B. (“Bob”) Makinson, a former Realtor, Kissimmee mayor and city commissioner; Bob passed in 2007. Buster dipped his toe in the political arena with a run for county commissioner in the 1960s, before he and Elaine met, but she said he lost and never ran again.

He was a champion of the downtown Kissimmee corridor and was an active participant in it; he sat for a term on the Osceola County Board of Adjustment.

“He was real involved in downtown and was happy with how it’s turned out after all the changes,” Elaine said.

John Makinson serves as a family link in the store; 14-year employee Walter Zaldana is the manager and said he’s been made to feel like family, too.

“That’s how he always made me, my wife and children feel,” Zaldana said. “Buster was a good man and a boss you enjoyed coming to work for. He knew he had good people here and he let us be successful at what we do.”

The store closed at 2 p.m. on Friday in order to attend Makinson’s viewing, and will remain closed over the weekend. It will reopen Monday and it will be “business as usual”.

“It is our family’s intention to keep the store open,” Elaine said. “We don’t anticipate any changes.”

Makinson’s Hardware has been a longtime pillar of the downtown Kissimmee business district, said Kissimmee Main Street Executive Director Kelly Trace.

“We graciously thank Buster and the entire family for all they have done in downtown over the years,” Trace said. “He certainly will always be remembered as a downtown pioneer among other great things he did for our community.”

Funeral services are scheduled for today at 10 a.m. at Osceola Memory Gardens. The family requests that, in lieu of flowers, well-wishers make contributions in Leon’s memory to the charity of their choice.

He also is also survived by daughters, Tracy Swearingen and Shannon Partin, of St. Cloud, sons John, of Kissimmee and Justin of Old Fort, N.C., sister Bonnie Makinson Seckel, of Placida, Fla., and brothers Bill, of Kissimmee and Blake, of Tampa. He also has 10 grandchildren.