End of an era

The corner of Eighth and Pine streets will lose a long-time resident today as businesswoman Lois Lambiel locks the doors at Lambiel Jewelry for the last time.

Lambiel made the decision this fall to retire and close the store she and her husband spent three decades building.

“At first I was kind of depressed,” said Lambiel. “But the more I think about it, I am looking forward to retirement.”

Lambiel ran the shop alongside her husband, Kurtis, for the majority of the 30 years it has been in business. Although he now lives in the Missouri Veteran’s Home, his photo remained on the walls of the store and was one of the last items packed away.

According to Lois Lambiel, it was Kurtis’ idea to venture into the jewelry business.

Her husband was a barber by trade, and Lois was prepared to be a barber’s wife until Kurtis injured his back, preventing him from standing on his feet for long hours.

“He came home one day and said he was going to jewelry school, and I thought that was the worst idea I’d ever heard,” Lois said.

She owned only two pieces of valuable jewelry herself — one being her wedding set — and could not imagine how anyone would create enough sales volume to make a living repairing jewelry.

 “Of course, now I know that was probably the best decision he ever made,” she said.

Once Kurtis completed jewelers school, he began doing repairs out of the couple’s rural Phelps County home, and quickly acquired accounts to do repairs and sizing for several local branches of big box stores, including Walmart and JC Penny.

After a few years, the business had outgrown their basement, and they made the choice to move into a traditional storefront on Pine Street, where they operated for several years before moving into “Finch Corner.”

The corner, according to Lambiel, was named after David Finch who owned the buildings that occupy it.

Finch recently passed away, and Lambiel speaks of him as not just the man she wrote a rent check to for 20 years, but as a friend.

Whether it was Finch or the employees of the jewelry store, Lambiel talks about each person involved with the store like they are family.

This includes watchmaker Ron Leep, who has been repairing watches at Lambiel Jewelry since the day the couple opened the traditional storefront.
“When he had bad times we helped him through it, and when we had bad times he helped us through it,” Lambiel said of the couple’s relationship with Leep.

When asked about his favorite stories about the Lambiels, Leep simply grinned.

“I had better not tell,” he said. “I’ve got too many.”

Leep will be continuing to repair watches, and can be found in the store next to the Lambiel location on Eighth Street.

It is to employees like Leep and Cathy Miller that Lois attributes the success of the store, and she is confident they will continue to be a part of her life, even without the store.

It is the customers she says she will miss the most.

Lambiel remembers the support she and her husband got from the patrons of the store.

“It really made you feel special and feel like they were more than just customers,” Lambiel said. “They were friends.”

She spoke fondly of the customers, employees and memories at the store, but Lambiel is also excited for a new chapter in her life.

“It’s just another adjustment in life,” she said.

Most of all, Lambiel is looking forward to spending more time with Kurtis, which is what prompted her to go into retirement.

Lambiel said she had been exhausting herself trying to balance the store with spending time with her husband and addressing her own health issues which take her to a doctor in St. Louis at least once a week.

“I thought, ‘You know what? I am going to have to give something up, and, right now, spending time with him is the most important thing,’” she said.