Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, January 14, 1993 TAG: 9301140142
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: PULASKI LENGTH: Medium
SHOPKEEPER SEES PULASKI AS COMING ANTIQUES CENTER
Carmella Jessee has been thinking about opening an antiques shop for two years and the favorable business climate in Pulaski encouraged her to take the plunge.She and her mother are preparing to start a shop called Memories, which will occupy a now-vacant store on North Jefferson Street.
"I expect to be open for business about the middle of February," Jessee said. "We're going to lean toward country antiques."
Jessee grew up in Chesapeake, where her mother, Elizabeth Simmons, had an antiques shop.
"One of her regular customers was Andy Griffith," Jessee recalled.
Simmons will be helping her with Memories full time, Jessee said, "to guarantee success."
She also has an aunt, Margaret Smith, who is in the business. Smith moved to Englewood, Fla., after her husband retired, but had run an antiques store in Roanoke for about 40 years, Jessee said.
"So I grew up with antiques. I've been around it all my life," she said. "It seems that, when you're into antiques, it's a way of life. If it's in you, you can't get rid of it."
She attended Bluefield State College and lives in Bluefield, W.Va., with her husband, Jerry, and their 15-year-old son, Josh. She and her mother will commute from Bluefield to Pulaski each day once their store is open.
"I've been a collector and I've always wanted to open a shop," she said. "I've seriously considered it for the last two years. It took me that long to find Pulaski."
For the past five years, Jessee has been a self-employed real estate agent working in both West Virginia and Virginia. She had been looking in those areas for a place to open her antiques shop, but could not find the right situation.
She came here after her sister and brother-in-law, James and Vicki Peele, moved to Pulaski from Santiago, Chile. James Peele is an officer with Pulaski Furniture Corp.
Shortly after that, she found Roscoe Cox, director of Pulaski's Main Street downtown invigoration program, who had already been instrumental in bringing a major antiques dealer to Pulaski.
"Roscoe helped me to find the ideal storefront. Within a week, I made my decision to come down here, after looking for two years," she said.
Pulaski has a growing number of antiques businesses opening in what had been empty spaces downtown. Cox and others are trying to put Pulaski on the map for its antiques shops.
"I have a good feeling about this town," Jessee said. "It's going to be the antiques center that they want it to be."