Page 48 - South Mississippi Living - February, 2017

ROMANCE & WEDDING a hand in romance
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daughters and staff don’t have a hand in the romance. They’ve even had the man pop the question in the showroom. This past holiday season, a man hid the engagement ring in a dirty Santa gift. With family and friends looking on, he went down on one knee and proposed when the woman received her dirty Santa gift containing the engagement ring. Another guy faked a medical procedure, and instead got his girlfriend, who was a nurse, on the roof of a local hospital where he proposed.
One story that brings tears to Reed’s eyes is the customer who came in with his girlfriend who obviously had a health issue. “They thanked us for being so nice to them. Why wouldn’t we be? But I guess they’ve seen it all,” she said.
Whether it’s the man selecting the ring himself
or the couple coming in together, sales manager Angela Polite said she gladly shares information about the jewelry. “We try to give them all of the information. We tell them there are websites to get ideas. If they leave, seven out of 10 times they come back,” she said.
“A lot of times they have no idea, especially why things cost what they cost. So we give them the
P. Shelton Jewelers has been in business for 72 years, and Cathy Reed, second generation owner, wants people to know they are here to stay.
“Each piece of jewelry, whether you are buying a piece from us or leaving a piece with us,
is very personal. We have a stable environment,” she said.
Her father, W.P. Shelton, opened the first store on Howard Avenue in Biloxi shortly after World War II. In the early 1970s, he relocated to Ocean Springs. In 1986, he sold the store to Reed and her husband, Terry Reed. Ten years later, she relocated the store to Government Street where there is plenty of off- street parking. Her two daughters, Jessica Treigle and Dianne Murray, make up the third generation working in the family business.
Reed has found that jewelry has emotions attached to it, especially if it leads to a proposal. “Love is one of the emotions, and people come in here wanting to show their love through jewelry,” Reed said.
Hardly a month goes by that Reed, her two
48 SOUTH MISSISSIPPI Living • February 2017
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Emotion
W.P. Shelton Jewelers help make engagements special
story by Susan Ruddiman photos by James Edward Bates and Teddy Lewis