Wendi Ward was working as an attorney in St. Paul when the first Gulf War started in 1990.
Wendi Ward, of St. Paul, pictured here at a St. Paul restaurant on June 20, 2025, died of a pulmonary embolism on Monday, July 14, 2025, at United Hospital in St. Paul. She was 70. (Courtesy of Victoria Fetter)
Ward, the daughter of a Quaker, refused to pay federal taxes as a protest against the war. That act of civil disobedience led to her disbarment, said her brother, Steve Ward of St. Paul’s East Side.
“She still paid state and local taxes, but they disbarred her for not paying her federal taxes,” he said. Eventually, he said, “she looked at all the stuff that she had that was cool – glassware and wool and silk and wood and metal things – and said, ‘You know, I should open a shop.’”
Ward, of St. Paul, died Monday evening of a pulmonary embolism at United Hospital in St. Paul. She was 70.
Thrift store on Randolph Avenue
Ward opened the Practical Goods thrift store on Randolph Avenue in June 2002 “to recycle, build community and offer spiritual resistance in a dismal situation,” she wrote in a history of the store posted on the store’s website. The store, which later moved to the Jax Building in St. Paul’s Lowertown and then to Selby Avenue, offered an extensive selection of kitchen goods, sweaters, baby clothes, wood toys, shoes and blankets.
“She could go through a thrift store and fill a cart with epic stuff for nothing,” Steve Ward said. “She was doing repurpose, reuse, recycle long before anyone else. She saw that a lot of plastic crap didn’t last long, so her store was all practical and durable and well-made.”
Practical Goods sold only goods that were secondhand and made from natural, high-quality fibers.
“We’re determined to stamp out polyester, acrylic, rayon and other materials that do not bio-degrade and therefore harm the environment,” Ward wrote in a post shared on the store’s Facebook page. “We support our local tax base and don’t feed big banks or mine your personal data.”
Ward didn’t own a TV and didn’t own a car for many years, said her niece, Eowyn Ward, of Minneapolis. The shop didn’t start taking credit-card payments until January 2023.
“She was very environmentally conscious,” Eowyn Ward said. “She was concerned about consumption and how if everything comes from a long way away, there are tons of transportation fees and additional costs and additional environmental impact. So she was very focused on small local businesses and natural goods.”
‘You vote with your dollar’
Ward was proud of running an independent business and keeping money in the local economy, Eowyn Ward said.
“She often said things like, ‘You vote with your dollar,’ and ‘Pay attention to where your money is going and what it’s contributing to,’” Eowyn Ward said.
Wendi Ward once wrote a long list of qualities she was looking for in potential customers. Among them: “People with more taste than money. People who like our planet and work to keep it nice. People with opposable thumbs (and an appreciation of the things hands make). People who wear clothes, use dishes, affirm the kinship of all human cultures. People who might dislike living in a world that is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mc-Wal-Cola.”
In a list of “intangibles” explaining why supporting small businesses is good for neighborhoods, Ward included her thoughts on credit-card debt, overconsumption and overpackaging. She also wrote: “We have a potty, and you can use it.”
“She loved keeping humor into her dissent,” Eowyn Ward said. “She wasn’t the kind of person who was always furious and angry and just bitter about life. She was like, ‘Let’s not do that.’”
‘Moral obligation’
There were financial repercussions from her disbarment, and Ward often would say that she was “intentionally living in poverty because of the practices of our government,” Eowyn Ward said. “She believed that she was making that choice out of moral obligation. She intentionally wanted to do what was best rather than what was easy.”
Ward grew up in St. Peter, Moose Lake and Duluth. She graduated from Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter in 1976. In 1982, she graduated from William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul.
Ward loved playing Scrabble, writing in her journal, rescuing cats and singing soprano, family and friends said.
“She studied voice with a famous Scottish instructor, and was delighted when she was invited to go to Edinburgh just before Brexit,” said longtime friend Victoria Fetter of Milwaukee, Wis. “She had many musician friends. At her holiday parties, Wendi would come in bearing a boar’s head on a platter, and singing the ‘Boar’s Head Carol.’ Trifle and other traditional English desserts were served to the guests.”
For many years, Ward was a regular attendee of the Renaissance Festival, where she sold her handmade jewelry, which was made of bone, stone, glass, metal, natural gemstones and leather – “rather than plastics and other types of jewelry components,” Eowyn Ward said.
Transportation choices
Ward objected to having a car for many years, but later in life needed one due to her health, her niece said.
She often rode Metro Transit’s Route 74 and utilized HOURCARs located at 46th Street Station and nearby Macalester College, writer Bill Lindeke wrote in an article about Ward headlined “In Praise of Bricks and Mortar,” published in June 2012.
“I’ve saved a lot of money but there are lots of other benefits,” Ward told Lindeke as she traveled to a rummage sale. “I live along a snow-emergency route, and I’ve never once had to shovel my car out of the snow.”
Ward required that everything sold at Practical Goods be “actually useful in your everyday life,” according to Lindeke.
“She will happily explain to you, for example, the difference between a corn pot, a soup pot, and a stock pot, why rubber boots are great for puddles, or how to use a mill-style coffee grinder,” he wrote.
Related Articles
Review: Yacht Club festival kicks off second year with energetic Friday lineup
St. Paul to host 2028 Transplant Games
St. Paul: Northern Iron Foundry files second lawsuit against MPCA
St. Paul Fire Chief Butch Inks appointed to second term
Man ‘randomly struck,’ wounded by gunshot fired outside his St. Paul home
‘No-haggling policy’
There was a strict “no-haggling” policy at the shop, Steve Ward said.
“Prices were fixed because she was an independent business person already taking a hit on everything,” he said. “She barely broke even for years. But she wanted things to go to a good home, to somebody who wanted or needed that thing, or would cherish it as a thing, rather than buy a cheap plastic crap from China, and throw it out a year later.
“There are plenty of people out there that have stuff that they bought at Wendi’s ten years ago that they’re still using,” he said.
A private family memorial is planned. A public celebration of Ward’s life will be held at a future date; anyone interested in attending should e-mail WendiWardS@gmail.com.
Crescent Tide Funeral & Cremation in St. Paul is handling arrangements.
Leave a Reply