AFFTON, Missouri — Seventeen years old and fresh out of high school, Frank Wagner Jr. wanted to be a taxidermist. He went to Schwarz Studio Taxidermists, then in the Lafayette Square neighborhood of St. Louis, and asked for a job, but they weren't hiring.
A week later, he called them again. The next week, he called them again. And again the next week. Soon, he started calling them every day, until the receptionist convinced the owners to try him out for a job.
Twenty years later, he bought the place. It was a good decision. Taxidermy, as it turns out, is recession-proof.
