Vincent Furniture had humble beginnings when Wayne Vincent first opened it as a secondhand store in 1968.

Wayne and his wife Betty Jo have grown the store into a community staple over the past 50 years of operation.

To celebrate its 50th anniversary, the store will be having a special sale on Friday and Saturday, with cake, coffee and t-shirts available on Friday to anyone who wants to stop by and join in on the festivities.

For Betty Jo, seeing the store grow from its humble beginnings has been like watching one of her children grow up.

“It’s sort of like watching a baby grow,” she said. “It gets just a little bigger, a little bigger and a little bigger.”

Wayne, who was 19 years old, and Betty Jo, who was 17, got married in October 1965, and soon after, Wayne suffered an injury at a cotton gin that saw him lose most of his right hand. He struggled to find work after his accident, and his search for a job took him as far as Michigan before he returned home to Cullman and was able to get a job at the King Edward Cigars plant. 

While working at the plant, people began giving their old furniture to Wayne, who would refinish the pieces and resell them. In 1968, he rented a building a few blocks away from the store’s current location and opened Vincent Furniture as an additional source of income.

After seven years at that location, Wayne was able to move the store into its current home on the corner of 3rd Street SE and U.S. 278.

For the first few years of operation, Vincent Furniture had only offered used furniture, but a sales rep took a chance on the store and sold Wayne a set of new furniture, and that allowed the store to continue buying new pieces to sell.

“We had an 18-wheeler full of brand new dining room suits. We didn’t have anything else but dining room suits,” she said. “After that, people just started calling on him and selling him new things, and the store just started growing.”

While the store was growing, the Vincent family was growing as well, and Wayne and Betty Jo’s four children were all a part of the store as they grew up.

“We raised all of our kids here,” Betty Jo said.

Wayne Vincent passed away on Nov. 11, 2002, but his family has carried on his work at the store and all four of his and Betty Jo’s children — Anthony, Wendy, Jon and Veda — continue to work at the store today.

For the children, being at the store and working there was part of their lives from the beginning, Veda said.

“Daddy brought us to the store when we were kids, and we had to clean, the boys had to deliver and I was selling furniture when I was 10,” she said. “This is all we’ve ever done.”

Over the past 50 years, the biggest change for the furniture business has been the prices, with individual pieces selling for what used to buy an entire set, Betty Jo said.

“We sold a living room suit for what an ottoman costs us now,” she said. “It’s changed so much.”

Despite the rising prices of furniture, business has been good for Vincent Furniture lately, with the store seeing more customers as Cullman continues to grow and more people are moving to the area.

“Furniture is up and down,” she said. “But business has been really good lately.”

After 50 years of working in the store, Betty Jo said she doesn’t really have a plan for the future, but she and the rest of her family aren’t going to stop working there any time soon.

“We’re going to go as long as we can,” she said. “We’re going to work until Jesus comes.”

Tyler Hanes can be reached at 256-734-2131 ext. 138.