Gift mall built on friendship
San Angelo, Texas — Jerrie Wiley and Carolyn Slaughter believe friendship and business can be mixed, and they have their own shop to prove it.
Friends since college in the 1960s, their similar interests and dispositions took them down the same paths: They found their first teaching jobs together, and both later worked from home selling jewelry.
So when the opportunity arose to go into business together in the 1980s, Wiley and Slaughter didn’t listen to the naysayers who said being business partners would destroy their friendship.
“We’ve always managed to keep our friendship going, and I don’t think we’ve ever been mad at each other,” Wiley said.
“I can’t imagine trying to stay in business with someone who isn’t a friend,” Slaughter added.
The women, who live in Ballinger, opened Jerrolyn’s there in 1984. They also rented and continue to rent space in various retail stores in the state. They bought one of those shops, Curiosities in Ballinger, in June, two years before opening Jerrolyn’s Gift Mall in San Angelo.
