When Dave Longaberger was just starting, long before the baskets, he needed help.  He hired Ken Birkhimer.  Although he did not know it at the time it was one of his best decisions.  Kenny became his “go to man.”  He was there for Popeye’s Restaurant.  He was there for the IGA grocery and he was thereat the beginning of the basket business.

Ken was Dave’s first employee and he did not retire from the Longaberger Company until many years after Dave’s death. Whatever the project Ken wasthe man.  Of great importance to us at The Inn at Dresden, Ken was the key person in the building of Dave’s home on Machine Gun Hill.  That home is what we now know as The Inn at Dresden.

We were honored this week when Ken came to the Inn to visit Diana Smith. Diana is a Longaberger consultant and has been active with the company since its early days.  From the Chicago area Diana is a basket expert who loves the company that Dave built.

Kenny stayed a while signing baskets and exchanging pleasantries.  It is nice to know that he and his wife will visit The Inn at Dresden again.  It is even nicer to get to know the genuinely kind and caring man he is.