A People’s History of the Inland Empire Digital Archive

CeeAnn Thiel Oral History

2025.001.005

Sound

This oral history with CeeAnn Thiel explores her life, family background, and decades-long career as a small business owner in Riverside, California. CeeAnn recounts growing up on a large potato farm in Idaho as one of fourteen children, emphasizing how farm labor instilled a strong work ethic that later shaped her entrepreneurial success. She describes moving to Riverside about forty years ago, initially for her husband’s education, and eventually opening her own shop, Mrs. Tiggy Winkle’s. A central theme of the interview is family, both her upbringing and her collaboration with her sisters who also operated businesses in downtown Riverside, including the Windhover House and Simple Simon’s. The interview also provides insight into the evolution of downtown, particularly the Mission Inn area in the 1980s and 1990s. CeeAnn talks about her retail space initially inside the Mission Inn and now on the nearby pedestrian mall, and contrasts the area’s earlier, more intimate and eclectic character with later redevelopment into a more commercialized space. She discusses changes in retail over time, including shifts in sourcing, consumer trends, and the decline of independent shops. Overall, she credits her longevity to her adaptability, loyal customer base, and intuition.

Business

Employment

Family

Farming

Local History

Small Business, Owner

University of California, Riverside

Women

Riverside (Calif.)

1970s-2020s

Catherine Gudis

Peyton Beeli

Ceeann Thiel

03-05-2026

People's History of the IE.

.m4a

eng

0:42:44