There was a time when the hallmark of Columbus and towns like it were family-owned businesses, passed on from one generation to the next. Sons and daughters often followed fathers into trade as naturally as summer gives way to autumn. The past half-century has seen a pronounced decline in the numbers, but on the corner of Main Street and 23rd Street South, Tom Younger and his boys carry on. Youngers have been with Columbus Motor Co. there since 1964.
Tom and his wife, Judy, work every day with their two sons, Tommy Lane and Tim. And two years ago, grandson Cole joined the service department full-time. He followed his dad, Tommy Lane, into the business, just as Tommy Lane had followed his own father.
“My family is always together,” said Tom. “It’s just natural to us.”
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For 52 years, Tom has risen at the home place in Steens and, practically every morning, made his way into work at the auto dealership. It’s fair to say he knows the business inside out. He first hired on as a parts man, working for the proprietor, his uncle, V.W. “Pinky” Thompson. He learned every facet of the Chrysler franchise, assuming management when his uncle had health problems in 1973. In 1978, Tom bought the company outright.
The boys were young, but that didn’t keep them from tagging along with dad when the chance arose. Before long, they were helping out, washing cars or cleaning up.
“At first, I started coming on Saturdays, and then started in summers,” recalled Tommy Lane, the eldest son. “I would sweep the shop, sweep the showroom and mop.” Tim, in his turn, did the same.
Upon graduation from New Hope High School, both sons took the same path — straight to work with dad.
“There wasn’t anything else I was going to do,” said Tommy Lane, who now oversees the service department. Tim is in sales.
Tom and Judy met before the dealership years. Tom, out of the Army, was working then for a finance company in North Mississippi when he was introduced to Judy in her hometown of Ecru. They married in 1964.
“He brought me out of the red, hilly dirt to here,” laughed Judy. She joined her husband at the business in 1981 and acts as office manager — and everything else her family needs her to be.
The company showroom facing Main Street has witnessed a parade of changes to Columbus as well as to the automotive industry. Tom reminisced, recalling the era of car shows, when the next year’s models were unveiled with fanfare.
Shiny cars off the assembly line were shipped in and stored in a warehouse to maintain secrecy. The showroom was hosed clean, walls washed and the big windows covered with newspapers. The staff would come down the night before the reveal to move cars in, ready to show the public the following day.
“Everybody wore the best they had, and people would go from dealership to dealership to see the new models,” Tom said, remembering the excitement.
He spoke of models and makes that have long since entered auto archives — Valiant, Imperial, Belvedere, DeSoto. He knew them all, and tutored his sons on the evolving line of vehicles that came after.
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Together, the Youngers have shared good times and weathered hard ones. One of those was a tornado in late 2002. It ripped up the roof, flooded the offices and showroom, speared cars with 2-by-4’s and snapped utility poles, making streets impassable. Power was out for about a week. Tom and his sons took turns staying at the business every night.
“But so many people showed up to help us clean up,” said Judy. “People brought food and did so much for us. You just can’t imagine.”
In 2009, the family absorbed a heavy blow when the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry was formed to deal with the financial bailout of Chrysler and General Motors. In the fallout of Chrysler’s bankruptcy filing, Columbus Motor Co. lost its franchise.
“We were one of the 789 Chrysler dealerships to have its franchise taken away,” Judy said. Throughout the ensuing uncertainty, the Youngers’ customer base remained loyal.
“They stayed true to us, and we now have four generations of repeat customers,” Judy continued. “We’ve been so blessed by their friendships. If it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be here.” The family now sells and services autos of all makes, models and years.
Tom said, “When one door shuts, two open.”
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People are the key, the Youngers feel. Over the years, Tom’s philosophy has shown up in ways large and small — in answering late-night calls when a customer has car trouble, in co-conspiring on surprise deliveries of Christmas and graduation cars, in dropping everything on a Sunday to go change a customer’s flat tire. It’s in the coffee and popcorn made every day for whoever drops in, in tomatoes and corn brought from the home garden and set out for visitors to take home. It’s in old photographs of Uncle “Pinky” and longtime employees who were part of the company’s history.
“Columbus once had a lot of family-owned and operated businesses passed down from generation to generation,” said B.A. Atkins, a longtime friend. He described Tom’s personal care of customers as “unreal.”
“It’s a different world we’re all in now,” said Atkins. “Theirs is just a family thing. It’s just a family affair.”
In a corporate culture that seems to have shifted toward selling up and moving on, instead of handing down and passing on, three generations of Youngers prefer to hold steady.
“The Lord has been good to us and blessed us,” said Tom. “That’s the main thing.”
Jan Swoope is the Lifestyles Editor for The Commercial Dispatch.
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