18 RETAILER HALL OF FAME 2017 one of the foundational beliefs that Sissy’s Log Cabin is built on, and the stores are committed to establishing a relationship with the customer in a way that builds lifelong relationships. Of course, that’s not hard with a person like Jones at the helm. She has a warm demeanor infused with a gen- uine interest in finding exactly the right piece for each client, say those who work with her. Jones has the kind of personality that when she en- ters a space, “she takes the whole room over,” Bill Jones says of his mother. “Sissy loves everybody,” Pine Bluff store manager Gutman says. “She doesn’t know how not to.” It’s her ability to form relationships, coupled with her desire to help customers, which leads Gutman to call her “the best salesperson I have ever met.” “I’ve been doing this for 30 years,” he says. “I’ve learned more from her in the last three years than I’ve ever learned before.” Jones also never fails to go that extra mile for her customers. Once, while she was in the hospital, she received a call from a man to whom she had sold a necklace, Ward says. He wanted a pair of earrings to match and asked for Jones’s help picking them out. Despite the fact that she was hospitalized, she spent the next 24 hours tracking down the perfect pair for him. “It’s extraordinary, but it’s also how you separate yourself from all the mediocrity,” Ward says. In fact, when asked about her favorite part of being in the jewelry business, Jones will say it is: “having relationships with my custom- ers and having the opportunity to meet so many beautiful, different people who have enriched my life so much.” And she, it would seem, has enriched theirs as well. Her generosity has reached so many that ev- eryone seems to have a “Sissy story,” showing just how many people have been touched by her, either as a customer or in their personal lives, Ward says. And each one of her stores commits to giving back to the community it’s in without reservation. “Things that matter to their com- munities matter to them, and they will invest in that with their presence, with their name, and with their merchandise,” she says. It’s no surprise Jones has been honored time and again, both by the industry and her community. According to everyone National Jeweler interviewed, she’s always willing to share her knowledge and is living proof that you get what you give. “I believe in sharing anything I know,” Jones says. “I’m so willing to share with anyone. If you help enough people get where they’re going to get, you’ll get there too.” “I’m so willing to share with anyone. If you help enough people get where they’re going to get, you’ll get there too.” —Sissy Jones The exterior of the Sissy’s Log Cabin store in Little Rock, Arkansas as it looks today and, at right, the original Sissy’s in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, circa 1970.