Abby Stone interacts with Amanda Fussell May, a student at Stone School of Massage, on Feb. 4. (Victor Texcucano/Staff)

Abby Stone had far from a storybook upbringing.

But through self motivation and hard work, she put herself through college, moved across the country with her young daughter in tow and discovered her passion. Blending her love of teaching and massage, she has found success owning Stone School of Massage for a decade.

Mrs. Stone, 48, of Tyler, has become an inspiration to many. She tells her story to her students to let them know they can push through anything to find success.

“She is someone who has truly defied all odds and instead of becoming some sort of negative statistic, she’s become a business owner of, I believe, one of the most highly respected massage schools in the entire state,” her husband, Paul Stone, said. “She’s done it through persistence, hard work, intensive study and a whole lot of creativity.”

 

DEFYING THE ODDS

Born to a 14-year-old girl in the small town of Carrollton, Ohio, Mrs. Stone was passed around between family members.

In high school, she was often left for months at a time by herself while her grandparents traveled. She was a cheerleader, which she credits with keeping her on the straight and narrow.

“I just made it happen,” she said. “It’s not like I had a bad family; just a different kind of family.”

Mrs. Stone’s grandmother forbid her to work but she often didn’t have any money when she was left alone. She was embarrassed when she couldn’t afford the socks to match her cheerleading outfit or when she couldn’t pitch in to bring cookies to the basketball games.

“Most of the time, I went without lunch,” she said. “I really don’t know how I did it.”

Mrs. Stone said she had given up on the idea of going to college but didn’t know what she wanted to do after high school. “I knew I was completely on my own,” she said.

She moved in with an aunt in Cleveland, Ohio and worked in a restaurant. When she could save up enough money, she took courses at a community college. At one time, she was waitressing, cleaning houses and selling makeup to pay for school.

Mrs. Stone wanted to be an elementary school teacher. Her junior year, she became overwhelmed financially and decided to move back to her hometown to take a semester off. She ended up getting married and having a child.

“I kept meaning to get back to school, I just didn’t get there,” she said.

When her daughter was 2, Mrs. Stone’s husband left her. She found herself in a small depressed farming community with an incomplete education, a toddler and an abusive ex-husband, she said.

Two years later, in 1994, she moved to Tyler to find her two half-sisters.

“I saw it as a fresh start,” she said.

After her church passed around a collection plate, and she had a garage sale, selling almost everything she owned, Mrs. Stone and her daughter drove for three days to make it to Tyler.

“It was exciting,” she said. “It was the best thing I ever did.”

She took on temporary work before becoming a secretary at a parole office. When talking to a college counselor about finishing her teacher’s degree, she found most of the courses she had taken wouldn’t transfer.

“I would have had to start all over again. I was just devastated,” she said.

She couldn’t afford, financially or emotionally, to go through four more years of school. Mrs. Stone picked a new program to study at Tyler Junior College – Diagnostics Sonography – while she was working as a secretary for Mother Frances Hospital. Around the same time, she learned of the now defunct Hands-On Therapy massage school and thought being a massage therapist would allow her to create her own schedule and make more money to pay for classes.

During her first day of massage school, something lit up for Mrs. Stone.

“I loved every second of it,” she said, adding that she never thought twice about going back to college. After completing the year-long school, she didn’t have a plan.

Her dentist asked her to come to his home to give he and his wife massages. Those first customers gave her the confidence she needed to rent a space in a beauty salon in 1996. She took out an advertisement in the newspaper and things started to grow quickly, she said. Mrs. Stone took every possibility she could to meet new clients and after a while, she quit her job at the hospital.

In 2003, she was ready for the next step — teaching massage. After extensive research and planning to start a business, banks rejected her for loans.

“People start telling you it can’t work, it won’t work,” she said, adding that she lost her confidence for a while. “You just have to push through the obstacles … You watch other people do it or you do it yourself.”

Mrs. Stone took out a small personal loan, received a loan from an aunt and maxed out her credit cards to start Stone School of Massage in 2005.

“We work hard and get our hands dirty,” she said, adding that she still cleans the toilets every day and her husband handles all of the taxes and advertising. “Students watch us do that and learn a lot about what it takes to run a business.”

 

INSPIRING OTHERS

Mrs. Stone tells her students her story on the first day of class.

“They need to know that wherever they are, they can rise out of it and above it and achieve what they want,” she said.

She believes a lot of her students are like she was – in transition – whether it is going through divorce or something else, she said.

“You’ve got to get over it, through it, under it or around it somehow,” she tells them. “I tell them my story because some of them are right there in it. … So many people just quit right before it gets better. And I could’ve easily done that.”

Stacy Anderson, 42, of White Oak, said she was a stay-at-home mom to her two daughters and wanted a career where she could make her own schedule and support her family. When she doubted herself, Mrs. Stone gave her the confidence to start a new career, she said.

She graduated from Stone School of Massage more than a year ago and now runs Massage by Stacy in Longview. “I’m very proud I went to the school,” she said.

Mrs. Stone shared with the class her struggles and mistakes she had made and how she overcame them. She taught them, “If you’re having a hard time right now, you can still do this,” Ms. Anderson said. “It doesn’t matter how hard this is right now, we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.”

One of Mrs. Stone’s mantras that resonated with her was simple – show up and work. Ms. Anderson said Mrs. Stone was always at the school early and stayed late. And since graduating from the school, Ms. Anderson still calls her for advice.

“You could tell this is a labor of love for her,” she said.

At her massage school, Mrs. Stone works to teach people to give good massages, as well as how to be trustworthy, ethical, reliable and knowledgeable. Hundreds of students from a 100-mile radius have gone through her school in the last 10 years and she estimates that about 10,000 massages, given by students and employees, are given at her business each year, she said.

When Mrs. Stone started going to massage school, her boyfriend and now husband, Paul Stone, was her biggest cheerleader. He babysat her daughter, Erin Huffman, 24, while she took weekend classes. They have been married for nearly 15 years.

Stone, 53, who is the business manager of Stone School of Massage, said many of her students see his wife as an inspiration and a mentor.

“She gives 100 percent of everything she does,” he said.

Stone said they met roadblocks when trying to start the business.

“We opened it on a wing and a prayer,” he said. “I knew nobody would outwork Abby … But I never expected us to have the level of success that we’ve had.”