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Earl May (died 1946 ) was an American Business man. His name lives on in 52 Garden Center s which bear his name. In the early 1920s , he was able to foresee the great opportunity of Radio .

Born on a Farm near Hayes Center, Nebraska , May discovered his knack for selling by earning money to go to College by trapping Wolves , skinning animals, and selling Turkeys . He started his career after earning a certificate to teach school at $50/month.

He later entered Law School , and worked his way through the University Of Michigan by selling garden seed on horseback for the D. M. Ferry Seed Company . He was a natural salesman and quickly attracted a number of capable individuals to work with him in building a successful Mail Order and Retail seed and nursery business.

He moved to Nebraska to finish his Law Degree at the University Of Nebraska , and met his future wife, Gertrude Welch, the daughter of E. S. Welch, a prominent nurseryman and owner of Mount Arbor Nurseries in Shenandoah, Iowa . Drawn by the intriguing catalogues and mail order merchandising by the southwestern Iowa nurseries, May left his law degree, married Gertrude, and moved to Shenandoah to become an apprentice to his father-in-law.

In 1919 , the Earl May Seed & Nursery Company was organized. The original company sold baby chickens, tires, batteries, radios, paint, shoes and clothing as well as seed, mostly by mail.

In the early 1920s, he traveled to Omaha, Nebraska to broadcast his program at WOAW . After two years he decided to build his own radio station in Shenandoah. In 1925 , KMA was opened, at first as a department of the nursery company. It was one of the most popular stations in the country, broadcasting homespun farming and gardening talks.

May won the '' Radio Digest '' coveted gold cup in 1926 , being voted the World's Most Popular Radio Announcer by over 452,000 people throughout the United States. The Mayfair Auditorium , home of KMA, was visited by thousands of listeners who wanted to meet the legend, and see the live broadcasts.

As Earl May wrote in one of his spring catalogs,

:"Be sure to come - bring your whole family. Remember, we do not put on any style here. . . if you are in your working clothes and decide to come, why come ahead, because you'll find me here in my working clothes, too. Come as soon as you can for I promise you will have a good time and that you will be glad you made the trip."

In addition to radio broadcasting, May wrote the copy for the mail order catalogs and his ''Nursery and Seed News''. They were filled with product and planting advice, as well as personal anecdotes that made readers feel like real friends. When the banks failed during the Depression, he often told his farm seed customers to order and plant the seed they needed, and pay him whenever they could. A letter from Earl May in the 1948 catalog showed that his customers had great confidence in him: "During the last year over a thousand customers have sent us their signed checks and left it to us to fill in the amount required for our goods". Such kindnesses earned him a reputation as a friend and humanitarian throughout the country.

After starting out with just a handful of seed and nursery catalogs in 1919, during the peak years of the mailorder business, more than two million were mailed annually. Radio advertising, a new concept, helped boost catalog sales. Gardeners could browse the catalogs filled with lush blooming plants on cold February nights, and dream of receiving seeds and nursery stock ready for spring planting. Letters to and from customers filled the pages of every catalog, and also helped sell products, such as flower seeds: "Don't envy the Zinnias across the fence, Grow some yourself, with blooms immense. 'I want the best' you're sure to say, So buy your seed from Earl E. May."

Though a powerful sales tool for many years, time eroded the catalog's effectiveness, and it was finally dropped in 1991, so the company could concentrate instead on its retail nursery and garden centers. Postage costs were high, and customers preferred to visit the garden centers instead.

May's business was 90% mail order for many years, until the first retail store outside of Shenandoah, named the Earl May Trading Post Number 2, was opened in Lincoln, Nebraska in 1930. May added stores the next two years in Omaha, Nebraska, St. Joseph, Missouri , Council Bluffs , Des Moines , and Fort Dodge, Iowa . Several more were opened in the 1930's throughout the midwest; several were open only from February through May, and were called "Spring Stores". They were usually located in downtown areas, and carried a good supply of garden seed and nursery stock.

In 1938 the decision was made to operate all stores on a year round basis. At that time, fertilizers, insecticides, tools, and other hard goods were added to the existing merchandise.