Gifts at J & J Jewelry and Gifts in Rusk, Texas, on Friday, July 27, 2018. Jackson has owned J & J Jewelry and Gifts since 1954, when she opened it with her first husband Earl Henry. (Chelsea Purgahn/Tyler Morning Telegraph)

RUSK—Soon after Earl and Joann Henry opened their small watch and jewelry repair shop in Rusk in 1954, customers had a reoccurring question.

“We didn’t have much merchandise and people that were our friends would come in and … they’d say ‘is this all you got?’ Joann, whose last name is now Jackson, said. “One time, after we were able to buy a whole tray of rings … we were so proud.

“It may have had a dozen wedding sets in it, and then they turned around and was looking and (asked) ‘is this all you’ve got,” Mrs. Jackson, now 84, added. “When you’re new in business, you can’t have much. You’ve got to crawl before you walk, so we had to start out very small.”

Early on, she learned to engrave and perform a variety of repairs, while Henry repaired mechanical watches, soldered and sized rings and handled more labor-intensive repair work.

When Henry died in 1970, she continued to operate the shop. 

After 64 years, a few name changes, a move to the downtown square and an expansion of inventory, J&J Jewelry & Gifts has established itself as one of the town’s most trusted and cherished businesses. 

The shop, at 136 S Main St., currently sells a variety of jewelry ranging from pearls and diamond wedding rings to charms and charm bracelets. The business has a bridal registry and gifts for all occasions. Class rings are also sold.

Customers can find a flatware, dinnerware, picture frames, music boxes, wall crosses and more at the shop.  

Items purchased at the store can be wrapped and engraved for free.

Mrs. Jackson said the price to engrave an item brought into the store starts at $5 and varies based on the request. One regular customer has brought in guns to be engraved. 

“He’s giving all his grandsons a gun when they get old enough to have one,” Mrs. Jackson said. “He always laughs when he’s coming in. He says, ‘I hope nobody thinks I’m coming in here to hold y’all up.’”

J&J Jewelry & Gifts also does repairs. Minor repairs and watch battery replacements are done at the shop, while major repairs are done at a trade shop. 

Mrs. Jackson said the shop generally has repairs done in one week. 

She added that the store still keeps catalogs, which allows customers to have more options if they can’t find exactly what they want in the shop.

“We do special ordering at special prices,” Mrs. Jackson said. “If somebody wants something that we don’t have, and we can order it. We don’t charge full retail. We give them a real good price.”

While running the business is great joy for Mrs. Jackson, the people are what seem to keep her going.

Over the course of an hour on Friday, both she and employee Shirley “Pete” Herring, of Rusk, who’s worked at the store for 25 years, knew practically every customer by name. 

Customers talked with them about everything from life updates to television shows as they shopped or picked up repairs.

Mrs. Herring described working at the shop as a great experience, and she’s enjoyed getting to learn from Mrs. Jackson.

“She’s a wonderful boss,” Mrs. Herring said. “She’s like the Energizer Bunny. She just keeps on going and going.”

Mrs. Jackson said she’s learned many things in her more than six decades of working at the jewelry business and that helping families create lasting memories has been very rewarding.

“I guess being in the jewelry business has taught me that so many people will look on things with sentimental value, “ she said. “Whenever someone buys something nice, and you’re so proud to sell something nice, you know that it’s going to be handed down to the next generation.”

TWITTER:@TMT_Augusta

J&J Jewelry & Gifts is located at 136 S. Main St. in Rusk. The business is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday, 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.