Jackson Furniture Ind.

born in 1903, mr. w. ray jackson left very humble beginnings in cleveland, tn at age 16 to set out on his own. after working for several years in an auto assembly plant in ohio, he returned back south to tennessee to try the chair upholstery business. after quickly learning the upholstery craft, he took the $30 in his pocket - all he had left after the banks closed during the great depression - and started jackson furniture company. the business grew and grew with expanded factories and more people hired and put to work. his $30 gamble paid off as by the 1970s he had over 1.3 million square feet of furniture manufacturing space in tn, ms, tx, and fl - and now held one of the largest family owned furniture enterprises in the usa. his greatest turning point was determining that assembly line production of platform glider recliners was the key to a "comfortable america". he took his knowledge from the automobile industry and applied it to chair/glider production. these same techniques ar