Ms. Persnickety closing, owner sells building

Ms. Persnickety Fashions, 326 S. Campbell is closing, according to owner Judy Sees, who sold the building to Troy and Sherry Hughes and Larry and Cathy Hughes. Sees will be out of the building by the end of May, and her last full day in business was May 15. She said she'll be busy for the remainder of this month, cleaning out the building and selling the small amount of inventory that remains.

Closing up shop

She said Ms. Persnickety Fashions was opened in its first location, at the corner of McDaniel Street and South Avenue, in 1972 by its original owners, Jim and Billie Durham.

"That was when Ms. was popular instead of Miss or Mrs.," Sees said.

The Durhams operated Ms. Persnickety Fashions until 1975, and at one point they opened up a second location on the Plaza, but it only stayed open a year or so, Sees said. The store's second owners, Carl and Bette Datz purchased Ms. Persnickety Fashions in 1975 and operated the business until 1984, when Sees and her husband, Roy Dean Sees, purchased the business.

The Sees moved Ms. Persnickety to 326 S. Campbell Ave. in about 1994.

"The reason I moved was because so many manufacturers, old-time manufacturers, were going out of business and the clothing business started shifting around, and we already owned this building," she said.

The Sees originally planned to close Ms. Persnickety Fashions in July 2000 and spend some time traveling, but Roy Dean Sees, who had acute leukemia, died in June 2000 before the couple was able to get the business closed.

"It just has taken longer getting it closed, because we have rental properties to take care of, so I just have had too much to do altogether," Sees said. "I thought there for awhile about maybe keeping it (open), but I decided not to."

Sees noted that she sold only her building and not her business she might eventually work as kind of a special personal shopper for customers, because a lot of the inventory she carried in the store was purchased with particular customers in mind. And, she added, Ms. Persnickety Fashions might someday open for business in a different location.

"I didn't want to sell the (business) because when I get things fixed around in four or five years, I might want to do something else (with it)," she said.

"I'm going to miss everyone. I don't have kids, and my customers have been like my family," she added

Family business

Troy and Sherry Hughes, who purchased 326 S. Campbell Ave. with his parents, Larry and Cathy Hughes, as partners in the deal, already own and operate one business downtown. That company, Sign Us, 639 W. Walnut, designs and places custom signs. According to Larry Hughes, who's a real estate broker and auctioneer with Murney Associates, the building at 326 S. Campbell will tentatively be used as a storefront location and central base for Top Hat Nut Company, which the family operates.

"We have peanuts, cinnamon glazed nuts (and) a variety of dried fruits," Hughes said. Top Hat Nuts are sold at area fairs and trade shows, but Hughes said, the family would like to expand the nut business and the amount of gift baskets the company does each year.

"What we're planning on doing if everything works out (is) establishing a route around town to all the businesses ... where we'd just simply go into stores or into businesses and go to their lunchrooms and sell to them," he said.

The majority of the nut company's business would come from outside sales, Hughes said, but the store sales likely would do well, too.

"A lot of people ask us Where's your store, we want to buy your nuts,' and we've never had a store," he said.

Hughes is careful to point out that a timeline for renovating the building and setting up delivery routes hasn't been determined. He said that's because everyone involved has what he calls "real jobs," so the plans will just have to be fit in.

The Hugheses declined to name the purchase price of the building, but Larry Hughes said the family is looking forward to renovating the building, and Troy Hughes may design a mural for the side.

"It's a neat old building, we just want to bring it back a little bit, to its original state," Larry Hughes said.

"We're very involved with downtown, we like downtown ... and I just love the way it's starting to pick up and redevelop. Some of these old buildings are really neat, and people are beginning to bring them back because they're just absolutely gorgeous old buildings."