James Avery's jewelry business began in the summer of 1954 in his in-laws' two-car garage in Kerrville, with $250, a small workbench and scraps of silver and copper. Avery, born in Milwaukee in 1921, had flown 44 missions over Germany as a B-26 commander in the Second World War, then studied industrial design at the University of Illinois and taught at the universities of Iowa and Colorado. In Boulder he taught himself jewelry-making from a library book and made cross pendants for students who asked for them. Visiting his wife's family in Kerrville, he set up shop, and his mother-in-law sold his first pieces at a summer camp where she worked. He worked alone for three years, then in 1957 hired his first employee, Fred Garcia, and mailed his first catalog. The business incorporated in 1965 as James Avery Craftsman and in 1967 moved to a 20-acre headquarters on the north side of Kerrville. The first store opened in Dallas in 1973. Avery retired in 2007, when his son Chris became chief executive, and died in April 2018 at 96. By then the company had about 80 stores in five states and roughly 3,500 employees, and its 100th store opened in Del Rio in 2021. When it named its first chief executive from outside the family in 2019, the company said it would stay privately held, with its headquarters and workshops in Kerrville.
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30.0994, -99.1462
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