CHARLESTON (AP) — Aprons, just like mom, grandma, and TV's archetypical housewife June Cleaver wore in the 1950s-1960s, are currently enjoying a resurgence in popularity, to collect and to wear.

Marlowe McSparin of Charleston is among those contributing to the apron's current favor.

McSparin and a niece, Melinda Anderson of Champaign, have rescued the large collection of aprons owned by Melinda's mother (McSparin's sister) Karen Anderson, who died along with a 2½-year-old granddaughter in a tragic automobile accident on March 17, 2000, near her home in Lynn Center.

They have made presentations to area organizations, have had shows at several museums, including Castellani Art Museum at Niagara University in New York, and were featured in Museum Magazine.

Karen Anderson was known as "the Apron Lady" in her hometown and a much wider area.

Anderson had started collecting around 1992, after a daughter had gone to an apron show in St. Louis and had come home excited that she had found an interest for her empty-nester mother to pursue.

"At first Karen didn't like the idea much," McSparin said, "but the more she thought about it, she decided collecting aprons and doing shows was something she could really get interested in, and she could make a little money, as well.

"Her collection grew by leaps and bounds because whenever she gave a presentation somebody would offer her another apron and share the story behind it.

"At one time, she had 500 aprons," McSparin said. "We have over 300 of her original aprons.

"The problem was that after she died, her husband put all the aprons in black plastic bags. When we took them to the art museum (one of their first shows), they said, 'Oh no, you can't do that,' but by then, we had already discovered that.

"Now we store them in archive boxes with vellum paper," she said, "in a huge closet Melinda has where moisture can't get to them."

Vintage aprons are particularly popular, McSparin said, because of the nostalgia they elicit, bringing to mind a mother or grandmother in the kitchen mixing a cake; or holding up the front of her apron to gather the eggs from the henhouse or shoo the chickens; using her apron to hold her clothespins; dry her hands; even wipe a child's dirty face.

Victorian aprons were long to cover the long dresses of the period and pinned in place on the bodice of a dress.

"They often provided a way for women to show off their crochet work, embroidery, and other needlework skills."

There were black mourning aprons from that period, somber, although they were often trimmed in lace and embroidery.

Over the years, popular aprons have included half-aprons, full-aprons, plastic or vinyl aprons, Christmas and other holiday aprons, novelty and advertising aprons, bib style, feed sack aprons, pinafores, gingham aprons with appliques or cross stitch, and hostess aprons.

The Karen Anderson apron collection also includes a few Kresge aprons.

"We didn't know what they were," McSparin said, "until a woman told us that Kresges (S.S. Kresge, early five and 10 cent stores) had a promotion where if you purchased four handkerchiefs, they would give you a pattern for making them into an apron."

Apron patterns have also become collectors items, she said.

Frilly hostess aprons, while they had little function, certainly had a purpose, and that was to indicate who was responsible for the hard work that had been done in the kitchen (while wearing a more serviceable apron).

"Karen's husband was a butcher at one time, so there's a butcher's apron in the collection," McSparin said, "and there's a couple of baker's aprons and a blacksmith apron.

"I've always worn aprons, especially when I'm baking pies," she said, "or when I'm cooking for a group. But, when I'm finished, I take the apron off. None of mine are fancy.

Two special aprons, one with prints of her grandchildren's hands, were made for McSparin by a daughter-in-law.

Aprons lost favor during the 1960s, about the same time women were burning their bras and finding other ways to assert their independence. But they are making a comeback.

McSparin likes collecting and showing aprons because they are a connection to her sister.

"It's a love for me because I feel like it keeps me close to Karen," she said.