FRANKENMUTH, Mich. (AP) — The 81-year-old founder of a year-round Christmas decorations store that is one of Michigan’s best-known retail tourist attractions has inoperable cancer.

Relatives of Wally Bronner, 81, notified employees of Bronner’s Christmas Wonderland on Monday that he was ailing.

Bronner started out painting signs as a teenager and grew that business into the store, which opened in 1945.

Several years ago, he turned over its day-to-day operation to son Wayne Bronner and daughters Carla Spletzer and Maria Sutorik. Their father remained a fixture at Bronner’s, mingling with customers and returning telephone calls, letters and e-mails.

Last year, as he celebrated his 80th birthday by working a 10-hour day greeting visitors to his huge store about 20 miles north of Flint, Bronner said he had no plans to retire, The Saginaw News reported Wednesday.

“You probably know I never work,” he said at the time. “Retirement is for people who work, so they can devote their time to their hobby. I started with my hobby.”

Bronner established a foundation that in 2000 donated $1 million toward the construction of a 500-seat auditorium at Frankenmuth High School.