Friends & Neighbors: Kathie and James Owens

By Lara Hayes
Dalton Daily Citizen

August 23, 2008 10:48 pm

— When Kathie Owens decided to leave her job at Conquest Carpet Mills in 1996 and open Slim’s Hitchen Post in Rocky Face, her main focus was taking more control of her and her husband James’ future because of his ongoing heart problems.
James worked hard as a commercial plumber, but with two artificial heart valves Kathie knew he couldn’t keep up his workload much longer.
James, however, wasn’t sure opening a retail store was a good idea.
“I thought it was the craziest idea ever,” he said, shaking his head recently.
Undaunted, Kathie pressed on. She had always enjoyed sales and had experience selling items like Tupperware and her acrylic paintings. A visit to a small Western store in Rome on their way to a horse show cemented her idea, and James liked Western things. After six months of research, Kathie found a cute little building off U.S. Highway 41 in Tunnel Hill and opened Slim’s.
“I could decorate the porch and it had plenty of parking,” she said. “I remember my first customer, Wally Todd. I had Monopoly money trying to show my daughter how to use the cash register, and he didn’t have his glasses on and he didn’t know the difference.”
If James wasn’t happy about his wife’s new venture, she made sure he was a big star in its creation anyway. For one thing, she named the business after his nickname. She also designed the company logo — a caricature of Slim in a cowboy hat.
“(The logo) has been our best marketing tool, bar none,” Kathy said. “We’ve had thousands of T-shirts printed with it on them.”
It didn’t take long before the store had a steady stream of customers.
“Word of mouth got around pretty fast,” said James. “It does in the horse industry.”
A year later, leery of predictions that widening of U.S. 41 was imminent, the couple purchased the old Rocky Face post office building, their current location at 2604 Old Chattanooga Road. Being closer to Dalton meant an increase in customer traffic. Customers run the gamut from teenagers who like hanging out to rodeo participants to blue collar people coming in for work boots.
“We have a good core of regulars,” said James. “I really enjoy getting to know the customers. It’s my favorite part of the job.”
From the beginning, the couple also made it a point to ask customers for suggestions, listen to what they had to say and then follow through. Kathie thinks it has made a difference.
“We’ve seen a lot of kids grow up in the store. Now we’re putting boots on their kids,” she said.
The couple opened a second store in Chatsworth in 2000, with James in charge. Three years later he retired from plumbing. Two years after that they were forced to close that store due to James’ declining health. A pacemaker was implanted in his heart in 2006.
Now, for the same reason, James and Kathie have announced the impending closure of their main store.
“They tell me there’s no cure for my heart problem,” James said. “All they can do is patch me up. I can go for a while, but when I get down, I really get down.”
Their plan is to stay open until Christmas Eve unless someone wants to purchase the store and the property. After that, James will take care of their farm while Kathie continues her new position as an administrative assistant at Dalton Family Practice. They really hope someone buys the store because they hate to see it disappear.
“I know the economy is slow right now, but it won’t stay that way,” said Kathie.
She knows the store will be missed as much as they will miss it.
“People really like us,” Kathie said. “They’re upset that we’re closing.”
The couple look forward to spending more time with their two horses. They will be participating in a haunted trail ride on Halloween at Loretta Lynn’s ranch in Hurricane Mills, Tenn. They also stay busy with the Whitfield County Saddle Club, which they helped found.
Kathie says she’s already having withdrawal symptoms and feeling guilty about not working 24/7 on the business.
“I feel like I’m not doing enough,” she sighed.

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