Doris McLendon became a jeweler by accident and a storeowner on purpose.

She was a junior high teacher in Jackson, Miss., when she figured out a way around her then-husband's refusal to buy nice jewelry.

    "I decided I would work one summer for a jewelry store and buy some jewelry. I loved it. I never went back to teaching."

    Today she's a rarity in the jewelry business - female owner of a high-end, independent retail store. Her name is in gold on the door of Doris McLendon’s Fine Jewelry, beside the Fresh Market at 9387 Poplar in Germantown.

    McLendon specializes in diamonds and sells more engagement rings than anything else. She also shows designer jewelry and sells pre-owned Rolex watches and antique and estate jewelry.

    Wearing a rope of pearls and a thumbnail-size peridot ring, McLendon, 55, is reserved and a little tearful as she thinks back to the road that led her into her own small business. But she also speaks with confidence of her decision to step out on her own last fall, despite a poor economy and wobbling stock market.

    “ I’m a very cautious person as far as spending, and I knew it would be rough for a while. I moved out here expecting that, but it’s actually been going quite well…Word of mouth is definitely how I’ve gotten to this point – happy customers.”

    In 1985 McLendon had a friend who worked in Jackson’s well-known, family-owned, high-end Albriton Jeweler’s. She knew nothing about jewelry other than what was beautiful, but McLendon got a job.

    “ I had to go in and learn from the bottom up. It was so much more fun making people happy than teaching junior high – and most people who leave a jewelry store are happy.”

    She worked nearly three years for Albriton’s until her family moved briefly to Tupelo and then to Memphis in 1989.

    She worked for two local jewelry companies and became a manager and buyer.

    “ You learn what’s going to sell, “ she said, “ like that diamond jewelry is easier to sell in Memphis than is colored stone jewelry.”

    She worked a total of seven years for other jewelry stores. Then 10 years ago, McLendon and five other independent jewelers pooled resources and inventories and opened a showroom inside the Oak Hall Building at 555 S. Perkins Extended.

    “ It was a very inexpensive way to go into the jewelry business,” McLendon said.

    She had two part-time employees there when she began plotting a year ago to move out on her own.

    “ My business grew, and it was growing and growing. I decided it was time to move on the street and expand.”

    She repeatedly drove past the shopping strip being finished last fall on Poplar, across from Germantown Baptist Church.

    Since she already had a large customer base in the Germantown area, she made a deal to lease and finish a 1,233 square-foot bay for a showroom and offices.

    “ It was hard leaving (the Oak Court area) because I also have a lot of West Memphis and Arkansas customers, but I just wanted to get out on the street, work a little bit harder and make my business  grow.”

    McLendon moved her showcases, desk and jewelry to 9387 Poplar in mid-November.

    She had saved money toward a potential move, and also drew on an existing line of credit to pay for specialists who moved her vault and set up security and telephone systems.

    McLendon now has three full-time employees, counting herself, and three part-timers.

    “ It’s been wonderful. I’m still pinching myself, and it was very scary, but…it was amazing how everything kind of fell in place – and I just know I’m supposed to be here.”

    While specific data are not available on numbers of women-owned high-end jewelry stores, Barbara Harrington is sure such women are unusual.

    Harrington owned and operated Wright Jewelers, formerly Brown Wright Jewelers, from 1990-98 in Chickasaw Plaza, after working for the store about 14 years. She said women are good at the personal relationships that make that kind of business succeed.

    “ It’s hard work; it’s fun and rewarding when you see people that are happy and pleased.”

    One business expense McLendon has had to increase is advertising in local newspapers and magazines to help people find her new location.

    Under Germantown’s restrictive ordinance, her name would not fit on the shopping center’s awning, so McLendon was limited to the word “Jewelry” above the store’s front door.

    “ I have been spending more on advertising to let people know we’er here. They can go right by.”

This article appeared in the Commercial Appeal on June 16, 2003