CHAMPAIGN — Anne Johnston has seen Campustown merchants come and go.

Some restaurants move onto Green Street, she said, and "two years or so, they're gone."

Not so with her business, Campus Florist.

Come Sept. 26, the floral shop at 609 E. Green St., C, will mark 70 years in business. Johnston opened it as a freshman at the University of Illinois.

Next Sunday, she'll throw a party at the Champaign Country Club for invited friends and customers — the "70th Hurrah," as she calls it.

"People are coming from California, Wisconsin and all over Illinois," she said.

Her late husband, Seely Johnston, ran a sporting goods store in downtown Champaign for 75 years. And Anne Johnston said it's conceivable she might match that.

"There might be another party after this one," she said. But Johnston said she can't foresee one 10 years from now.

Johnston said she puts in seven hours a day at the shop.

Working with her is Phyllis Valentine, who has been at Campus Florist for 32 years.

When Valentine started — two years after getting married — she swept the floor, watered plants, waited on customers.

"Now I'm the straw boss," Valentine said, "and do almost all of the arranging."

Valentine said it's been a pleasure working with Johnston.

"Anne taught me how to design (bouquets) and taught me other things about life as well," she said. "We've just become family over the years."

Johnston said the Valentines "adopted me, or I've adopted them."

The shop has five full-time employees and, in recent years, has been prowled by a cat named Trouble.

Being in business 70 years doesn't seem as amazing to Johnston as the fact that her mother — who had two flower shops in Chicago — left 13-year-old Anne in charge of the shops while she went to Europe.

"Can you imagine being 13 and having two stores?" she said, noting each shop had a floral designer.

Compared with that, running a shop for 70 years is "normal," she said.

Lots of things have changed since Johnston — then known as Anne Petersen — opened her shop in 1941 in a small storefront on South Wright Street.

"The students are different. The way of life is different," Johnston said. "You used to be able to park on Green Street — without meters!"

During her early days in business, most customers were men buying flowers for women.

"At one time, girls didn't buy flowers for girls, and girls didn't buy flowers for boys," she said. "Now fellows come in and want flowers for their rooms."

Besides devoting time to the shop, Johnston remains active in the Champaign Exchange Club, helping to line up speakers for weekly meetings.

She's also an active member of the Illini Quarterback Club and the Illini Rebounders — and was awarded life membership in the latter last year.

She likes basketball but doesn't find it easy to get around Assembly Hall.

As for football, she confesses she doesn't know anything about the game except when a touchdown is scored. But a football player once assured her that's the most important thing to know.

Hope Eastin, a friend and customer for more than 20 years, called Johnston "a lovely, remarkable, gracious and giving person. I have never known a harder worker."

Johnston was severely injured in a 1997 assault at the shop but has bounced back from it.

She said she has to watch carefully where she walks. Last October, she got out of a car at the Champaign Country Club, tripped on a curb, fell on the ground and was knocked out.

But after a trip by ambulance to the hospital to get checked out, she returned to the country club to have her meal.

Why, her friends asked.

"I was hungry," she said.

Maybe crazy too, she added.

Johnston said she has stopped making annual winter visits to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico. But she continues to go to Florida and take shorter trips.

She said she still hopes to travel to Thailand, where she has friends, but needs a companion for the journey.

Johnston said she's not tempted to sell or lease her shop to merchants willing to pay big bucks for the space. She's going to stay. Besides, she doesn't get many offers for the building these days.

"I guess they figure there's no use in asking because the answer will be the same," she said.