It has been 17 years since Lisa Grugin lost her father, Walton Pile, to cancer. But the co-owner of Meadow View Greenhouse & Garden Center in Lenoir City continues to carry his influences with her to this day, especially when it comes to running the family business.

Although their livelihoods were in different industries—Walton was a dairy farmer, Lisa works with plants and flowers—their jobs have one important aspect in common—taking care of living things. And in that respect, Lisa learned from her father, especially in the course of helping out on the dairy farm as a child, that one must work according to nature’s schedule.

“One thing you learn as the child of a farmer is that things have to be done, and it doesn’t matter whether you feel like doing them or not,” Grugin says. “Cows had to be milked, hay had to be hauled, things had to be done.”

These days, she applies that same work ethic to her own business, which she runs with her husband, Rodney.

“I learned from my father that there are no excuses,” she adds. “If you’re going to do something, you do it right, to the best of your ability and until it’s done.”

Another lesson she learned from her father was the value of determination and perseverance. Despite having lost an arm and the use of an eye and nearly losing a leg, Walton Pile was, as his daughter describes, “tough as nails.”

“Nothing ever handicapped him,” she says. “He was never affected by that, and until he got sick with cancer, I never remember seeing him sick a day in his life.”

The Grugins—both U.S. army veterans—operate the retail end of a business that also includes Lisa’s mother, brother, sister, brother-in-law and sister-in-law. Meadow View Greenhouse & Garden Center offers a full line of plantings and gift items for the home, including annuals, perennials, tropicals, shrubs and trees.

All of the annuals and most of the perennials are grown on the site of her father’s Fentress County farm, which today accommodates the garden center’s wholesale operation. Lisa’s brother started the wholesale side in the 1980s, and when Rodney left the Army after Desert Storm, the Grugins started running the retail end at Meadow View, which is located between Lenoir City and Dixie Lee Junction.

Susan Worthington, co-owner of The Southern Market in Bearden, admittedly wears a lot of hats. But in her case, the expression is a figurative one. Since opening her collective of interior-design shops in 1996 with her mother, Frances Sexton, Worthington plays multiple roles in the business’ daily operations, from human resources, to sales and marketing, to janitorial. It’s all part of a typical day as a small business owner.

Possessing that broad range of business skills is an attribute she learned firsthand from her father, Charles Sexton, Jr. Prior to his passing in late 2008, Sexton had spent his career as a manufacturers’ representative for industrial equipment—a family business that had been established by his own father, Charles Sexton, Sr.

That spirit of entrepreneurship also passed smoothly from generation to generation.

“My father and I are both independent individuals,” Worthington says. “It was something that I think was probably in our makeup, to be entrepreneurs.”

She recalls that as early as age 16, when she worked in a textile store, she wanted to own her own retail home furnishings business. Her father’s example instilled the notion that she could follow in his footsteps when it came to being a self-starter.

“I didn’t feel the urge to ever go work for someone else or for a big company. A lot of people enjoy the security of that,” she adds. “My dad’s work was on a commission basis, which wasn’t as stable as drawing a salary, so I was not intimidated about going out into the world after college.”

Worthington graduated from Bearden High School and later earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Tennessee. However, rather than pursue her initial interest in interior design, she took her father’s advice and studied marketing and business instead. She earned her master’s degree in accounting and was on the verge of becoming a CPA when her mother began a home redecoration project that rekindled the daughter’s interest in interior design.

Her innate flair for design combined with a solid business education paved the road for Worthington to start laying the groundwork for The Southern Market in 1993.

O.P. Jenkins Furniture in downtown Knoxville is the quintessential family-run enterprise, and it has been for more than 100 years. The reins of the business have been successively passed down from generation to generation, and these days, they’re in the capable hands of Meg Troutman, great-granddaughter of store founder O.P. Jenkins, and her husband, Terry.

Troutman took over outright ownership of the store after her father, Bobby Sherwood, retired six years ago, following his own long stint as head of the family business. But for Troutman, the day-to-day goings on at O.P. Jenkins are all very familiar, having literally grown up in the midst of it.

“I grew up going to furniture markets,” she says, recalling the many trips she took with her father to acquire new inventory for the store. “I liked it, so I majored in merchandising at UT.”

After college, she and Terry married (they were high school sweethearts), and Terry went to work for his new in-laws. Even as Meg focused on raising their children, she continued to stay involved in the business by assisting in the buying of new merchandise. Now that the kids are grown, she has transitioned into the full-time oversight of O.P. Jenkins Furniture and is putting into practice lessons learned from her father.

“I’ve always loved the business, but I learned the value of hard work from my father,” she says. “He worked all the time, but when he was home, he gave us his full attention. Our store has always been closed on Sundays, because Sunday was family day.”

In addition to hard work, Troutman and her team have continued to exhibit other skills handed down from her father, including organization, a conservative business philosophy and solid customer relations. They are carrying on the practices that have kept O.P. Jenkins Furniture in business over the decades, even during periods when other downtown businesses floundered.

“Business is very relational,” Troutman explains. “During hard times, people have confidence in you, because you offer fair pricing and you service your product. It’s not just about the sale but about customer satisfaction. We’ve always made people important—not the furniture.”

Women who run their own construction companies are a rarity in the industry. In Jenny Blalock’s case, ironically, it was her father, Jim, who first inspired her to start her own residential contracting business.

“We were driving down the road one day, talking about how some women would be married for years and divorce later in life, only to be left with nothing and no career to fall back on,” Blalock recalls. “My dad looked over and said, ‘Jenny, never rely on someone to support you. You need to always be able to take care of yourself.’”

As a contractor, she has done just that. But she learned a lot more from her father than self-reliance. Jim, who owned his own plumbing supply company for 30 years, introduced Jenny to the world of construction when she started working in sales for his business. She developed a fondness for home construction over commercial and was soon inspired by other residential contractors to get into the business herself, founding Luxe Homes, Inc. at age 21.

Since then, Jim Blalock has closed his plumbing supply business and gone to work for his daughter, helping her grow Luxe Homes by serving in a variety of capacities—from taking clients through the home construction process, to making repairs, to just being a set of listening ears during stressful times.

“He is someone I can rely on to be there when I need him most, and that is the most important thing,” Jenny says. “My dad has patience of steel. I don’t know where he gets that laid-back attitude that he has. Being in this business will test your patience, but he has taught me to have patience.”

She also credits her father’s faith in God and his 46-year marriage to her mother as being strong influences on her, both personally and professionally.

“There are very few people who haven’t been touched by the economic and housing crisis,” she adds. “But there are people who give up and quit and bury their heads in the sand, and there are people like my father, who, at age 65, still works hard, no matter what the job may be. Success lies in the heart, and the reward is being happy with what you do.”

As a young man just starting out 25 years ago, Jim Klonaris had a vision of success that was common among recent college graduates of his generation. With a degree from the University of Tennessee in hand, he entered the corporate world, spurred on in part by dangling carrots shaped like nice cars, new boats and large homes.

One quarter-century, a couple of career shifts and three children later, Klonaris—who owns and operates Café 4 on Market Square with his wife, Lori—now refers to those early visions of success as “skewed.”

And that’s not because he never acquired those traditional status symbols; he did—early on. But eventually, he had to come to terms with letting them go, and in the midst of substantial material loss, the choices he made as a parent suddenly seemed more important than ever, and his life’s true legacy was revealed.

“When you lose everything, you realize that’s not where success lies,” says Klonaris, who is also a national public speaker and managing director for Franklin Covey. “Success lies in the journey, and success as a father is seeing your kids grow up having a sense of respect and core values.”

Ironically, some of their greatest moments of parental success came during a low point in the Klonarises’ professional lives. When Jim left the corporate environment of Coca-Cola after a 14-year stint, he and Lori decided to pursue the entrepreneurial dream of restaurant ownership, and they found success in the Knoxville market with their popular Kalamata and Tijuana Taco restaurants. However, the ripple effect from the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks led to what Jim describes as “devastating setbacks” in the family business.

“We started over with zero and learned some of the best lessons in life,” he recalls. “It would have been easy for us to play the blame game. But our children do what we do, and they look to us for direction as to how they will live their lives. They look to us to determine how they will behave, based on our values and ethics.”

Ages 9, 10 and 11 at the time, the Klonaris children felt the impact of the family’s drastic change in lifestyle, but Jim and Lori made a point of using the situation as a teachable moment. The lesson was one in perseverance.

It was a trait that came naturally to both Jim and Lori—he, the grandson of Greek immigrants and she, the first-generation American daughter of Lebanese parents. Both were raised in families with strong work ethics and in which the American dream meant not taking freedom for granted but instead taking responsibility for doing something with one’s life.

“We are given the ability to be responsible for our actions, even when we fail,” Jim says of the mindset handed down to him and Lori from their respective families.

Of course, in most success stories, early failures are often followed by second chances, and today, with Café 4 thriving as one of the crown jewels of the Market Square district, the Klonarises are once again making an impact on the local restaurant market. The takeaway from the experience has not been lost on their son and two daughters, now ages 18, 19 and 20.

“Our kids have the mentality that you never quit,” Jim notes. “Anything you start, you keep plowing until you succeed.”

And there is evidence that two decades’ worth of life lessons have taken root with the next generation.

“All of our children have worked for us as well as for other people,” Jim says. “Two of our kids bought their own cars, and our 20-year-old son just bought his own home. He’s worked with me since he was eight years old, and along the way, I tried to teach him the value of delayed gratification.”

As if to drive that point home even further, Jim points out that he and Lori—who have been married for 22 years—are taking their first vacation alone together in nearly that same span of time.

Interestingly, when it comes to defining fatherhood specifically, Klonaris makes a distinction between being a father and being a dad. He uses the term “father” to describe the man who instills in his children values such respect, honor and forgiveness, while “dad” more often refers to the man who expresses love in the more emotional sense, the one who attends the kids’ sporting events and chaperones the school outings.

“I don’t think I’m good at both,” he shares. “I think I’m more of a father, mainly because of the choices I’ve made in our businesses and because we try to live the work ethic instilled by our parents.”

But it may be Jim’s own father, John, who has helped him see the father-son dynamic from an entirely different perspective. Jim tells the story of taking his father—who recently transitioned into an assisted-living facility to cope with increasing dementia—on a car ride. It was a rare day when John recognized his son, so Jim decided to take advantage of the opportunity to tell his father, now the frail man in the passenger seat, how he had been a good father. And a good dad.

“He put his hand on my hand and said, ‘Thank you,’” Jim recalls with a swell of emotion. “I realized that’s what every dad wants to hear from his children. That’s ultimately what we want as fathers, to look back and understand that the important things were passed down and given back, not just to us but to the community.”

It seems likely that at some point in the next 30 years, Jim Klonaris will be on the receiving end of three similar conversations. In the meantime, he takes comfort in the fact that whatever professional fortunes or misfortunes lie ahead, his children will hopefully have considered him—father, dad—to be a successful man.

Designing the Family Business

In business since 1993, Carol Raley Interiors, a growing local design firm capable of doing everything from one window all the way to full-scale re-designs and remodel projects, is one of Knoxville’s true family businesses.

“Having a family business has always been a dream of mine,” says Carol, the company’s founder and principal designer. “And not only are we a family business, but most of our clients usually become friends.”

At the right hand of Carol’s family business model sits her daughter, Shana Lusk, who says she realized soon after graduating college that the design business is something that gets in your blood. 

“I can’t remember a time when I didn’t feel connected to and involved in the business,” Shana says. “It is a big part of my childhood and has played a major role in shaping who I am.”

Shana, who graduated from the University of Tennessee in 2005, worked at a non-profit for a couple of years before formally beginning a working relationship with Carol Raley Interiors in 2007.

“Shana grew up in the design business,” Carol says. “So in a way I’ve worked with her for years. She knows the business and me very well and is a great sounding board and co-designer.”

Carol says she is proud to have been able to expose her children to a mom that was also a business owner.

“I think it has been good for my children, and now my grandchild, to see me wear many hats in life while still making them my utmost priority,” Carol says.

Shana, who recently became a mom herself, completely agrees.

“Even though it is a juggling act, I am happy that Owen will have the experience of growing up in a family business like I did,” Shana says. “Becoming a mother myself has brought me even closer to my own mom.  I now have a greater appreciation for the way my mother balanced family with starting and building her own company.”

As principal designer, Carol is involved with most aspects of the business. Meanwhile, Shana, along with Carol’s husband Steve, who handles project management and logistics, help make sure all the details are taken care of.

“Because we are a small family owned company, we all do whatever it takes to get our projects from concept to completion,” Shana says. “Fortunately, my mom and I get along very well,” Shana says. “Working with her is easy.”

So, if you are in need of residential or light commercial work interior design, give Carol or Shana a call at 865-933-9905 or visit them on the web at www.carolraley.com.

Mother-Daughter Team Take Charge of Education

Ruth Jones, co-founder of Mead Montessori School in South Knoxville, has been an educator for over 40 years. And for the better half of that time, Ruth’s daughter, Ella, has been a big part of that educational experience.

“I have always been a part of my mom’s school community in some form or fashion,” says Ella.

Ruth, who started out as a high school art teacher, became a Montessori teacher after enrolling Ella into her first Montessori school while she was still a child. The decision would change the lives of both mother and daughter, with Ruth eventually going on to open Farragut Montessori School in 1987.

Ella officially began her own career as an educator while still in high school when she became an assistant at the school. From there, she went on to become a full-time teacher in 2003 when she took her first official teaching position in Blue Hill, Maine. Then, in 2005, she earned her Montessori training and Master’s Degree.

But it was not until 2007, when Ruth and Ella purchased the historic Mead School in South Knoxville, that their true collaboration began to take place. Ruth says that she and Ella have relied on old fashion family teamwork to develop the dormant building into a fully functional and growing school.

“Because we are a mother-daughter team, we are able to be really honest with each other and make decisions together that benefit the school in the best possible way,” Ruth says. “Plus, Ella offers fresh perspectives and ideas and I am very proud of all she has accomplished in our new venture.”

The business venture has also been made special by the fact that Mead Montessori is housed in Knoxville’s historic Mead School. Located ½ mile from Ijams Nature Center and two miles from downtown Knoxville, the historic Mead School has been a fixture of the Island Home neighborhood of South Knoxville since 1936.

“We are so happy to have found a home in such a beautiful and interesting building,” Ruth says.

Ella agrees, and even says that the renovation of the building helped deepen her bond with her mother.

“We have had to collaborate on so many aspects of the renovations and other areas of school development that we have became even closer than before,” she says.

Currently in its second year of operation, Mead Montessori School is Knoxville’s only Montessori school certified by the Association Montessori International. The school has 20 students ages 2 ½ to 6 and they will be expanding into toddler and elementary programs next year.

For more information about Mead, please visit www.meadmontessorischool.com.

An Answer to Prayer
For adoptive mother, Mother’s Day is a day of thanks

Patti Long was in her late thirties when she married her husband, Tony, and their early attempts to have a child were unsuccessful. However, rather than turning to fertility treatments as a solution, they chose to go the adoption route, and two years after signing with a local adoption agency, young Samuel—age three and a half weeks—became a permanent part of the Long household.

His arrival was a whirlwind process in which the Longs were informed of the boy’s availability on a Friday, met him for the first time the following Thursday and took their son home the next day.

For Patti, it was love at first sight. It didn’t matter that the boy was of a different race (African American) and had been born with piebaldism, a rare form of albinism that resulted in the boy’s otherwise dark skin displaying random patches of white.

“We held him and loved him right from the beginning,” Long recalls. “Not until you experience it can you understand that kind of unconditional love.”

A couple of years later, her son would be diagnosed with autism as well, but despite those challenges, Mother’s Day now has special significance for Long.

“I stop that day and say ‘thank you’ to God for answering one of my greatest desires,” she says. “I’m so blessed. Even with all of Samuel’s issues, I cannot imagine not having him. I never think of Samuel as being adopted. It’s like he’s part of us.”

She adds that Samuel often displays traits that are strangely similar to those of his adoptive parents.

Now in kindergarten, Samuel is accepted and loved by his classmates, and according to his mother, the boy takes his skin condition in stride.

“He tells people, ‘I have the most beautiful skin in the world, and God made me both brown and white,’” she says.

Having grown up in a tightly knit family with many siblings, Long soon found herself praying that God would bring her and Tony another child so that Samuel might enjoy that same kind of familial experience. That prayer was answered two years later when, despite having had four miscarriages, Patti gave birth to a daughter, Bonnie, now age four.

“They’re very close, typical siblings. They fight sometimes, but they love each other a lot. I couldn’t ask for anything better than that.”

Going All Out
Linda Parrent doubles as a proud mom and business owner

Linda Parrent, owner of Elegant Essentials, a thriving new gift shop located in The Gallery Shopping Center in West Knoxville, is one East Tennessee mom who is not afraid to go all out. That’s why when she opened Elegant Essentials, which features 1,600 square feet of unique gifts and home décor, Linda knew that growing the business would take a tremendous amount of her time.

But before becoming a hard-working business owner, Linda was a full-time stay-at-home mom.

“I was the first person my children saw when they came home from school,” says Linda, who also volunteered for countless extracurricular activities, including cheerleading, swim team, PTA, and band. “It was a sacrifice to stay at home, but I think we raised dynamite kids.”

The Parrents’ three children, Brandon, 29, Jennifer, 25, and Kristen, 20, are all proud supporters of Linda and her business endeavor, something Linda says she takes great comfort in.

“The best compliment I get is when my kids say they are proud of me,” she says.

Linda’s consistent determination as a business owner has also led to success outside of the business arena as she recently took on the title of Managing Director for eWomen Network of Knoxville.

Linda credits the networking opportunities afforded by the organization with having a big impact on her new small business.

“In just two years, despite the dismal economy, we have managed to experience constant growth,” says Linda, who is also a certified interior decorator. “And networking has been so important in achieving that growth.”

Linda says that membership in the eWomen Network (www.ewomennetwork.com), an organization with 113 chapters nationwide and in Canada, gives women a chance to actively help improve each other’s businesses by engaging in monthly accelerated networking events.

“We haven’t been in Knoxville for very long,” says Linda, who runs the store along with her husband Stephen. “So for the chapter to put its faith in me is truly humbling.”

The Knoxville chapter boasts a little over 200 members and as the group’s new Managing Director, Linda is enthusiastically determined to expand that number to 500.

“We have such strong women in our Knoxville chapter,” she says. “Contacts are so important, especially nowadays. It’s all about helping other business owners.”

This summer, Linda will also appear in the July issue of Women’s Day Magazine in which she will be profiled for following her passion for flowers and small business ownership.

“In another six months, it might be a whole other story,” she says.

In the meantime, Linda and Stephen welcome you to find a Treasure, set a Trend, and make a Tradition at Elegant Essentials.

In 1947, New York newspaper reporter John Gunther, came into town, checked out the area, then returned to New York and wrote that “Knoxville, Tennessee is a scruffy little city on the Tennessee River and the ugliest city in America!” Those remarks led to the founding of the Dogwood Arts Festival. The natural beauty of Knoxville, its dogwoods, azaleas, and other flowering plants seemed to be the vehicle to “polishing” Knoxville’s image. Thus, in 1955 members of the Knoxville Garden Club lead by Betsey Creekmore, Martha Ashe and Betsy Goodson, along with a group of concerned citizens with a vision began a civic beautification project… “The Dogwood Trails.”
As more people came to Knoxville to drive the trails, area business and community leaders felt more entertainment was needed for the visitors. A Charter of Incorporation was signed on March 31, 1961, and that official document listed the Festival’s purposes as “advancing, promoting, supporting, and fostering the natural beauty of the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, and the surrounding area and advancing, promoting, supporting and fostering educational programs, charitable undertakings, historical, horticultural, drama, crafts, tours, lectures and other related activities, either singly or in cooperation with other organizations, for the purpose of emphasizing the cultural opportunities of the City of Knoxville, Tennessee, and for other related purposes.”
When it was first organized, the Festival Corporation was the creation of the Junior League of Knoxville and the Greater Knoxville Chamber of Commerce. Two of the signers of the charter were the first Festival Co-Chairs, Goldsby Timberlake and Jim Talley, representing the League and the Chamber.
By 1976, the Festival was large enough to go into the world on its own and have a separate Board of Directors. One of the Board’s first actions was to hire a full time Executive Director.
The Festival has been one of the largest and finest annual festivals in America. It has been recognized nationwide, though professional associations such as the IFEA (International Festival and Events Association), TFEA (Tennessee Festival and Events Association), membership with ABA, (American Bus Association), and many others. DAF has been named among the Top 100 Events in North America by the American Bus Association and one of the “Top Twenty Events” by Southeast Tourism Society.
Over the past 50 years, thousands of volunteers, patrons, media and corporate sponsors have assisted a small Dogwood Arts staff to make a festival of this magnitude possible.
With the flowering of the dogwoods in the spring, coupled with the creative culture and the community-wide pride, the Festival always has a newness and wonderful freshness every spring. Individual home owners who spruce up their yards make the dogwood trails a sight to see year after year.
The Dogwood Arts Festival represents the very best of nature and the people of East Tennessee and its commitment to that Charter Goal will always be in the forefront.