By Gary Lee Stuber
Rene Moore was born Rene Nichols, and is the oldest daughter of the previous owner of the Clay County Free Press, Clinton Nichols. She, as a youngster, was an eager, ambitious and eventually integral part of the newspaper. “When I was 9 years old, I would work for Dad, when the newspaper was back up on the hill, on Saturdays,” she laughs. “At nine years old I could do a bank deposit, walk it down to the bank and bring back the receipt. I could properly answer the phone and take messages. And back then you folded the papers in half and stuffed them in an envelope and label it for customers out of state.”
In high school she would learn to type and then was involved in the typesetting at the paper. This is something I share in common with Rene, we got our feet wet, her with her dad, and me in Charleston, typesetting on an old Compugraphic IV. Imagine an oversize blue square box with a tiny single line screen on it. You would type one line at a time, and it would print that line before going on to the next. This was in an era before personal computers, no IBM, no Macs. And if, while editing, there was an error in the text you would have to type that single line again and then “paste” it in with wax over the original text. We laughed about that.
For Rene, high school was also the time when she would meet the man of her dreams. “Brian and I went to high school together, but the first time that I met Brian was when he came out to cut firewood with my dad,” she said. Life wouldn’t be the same after.
After her time working with the newspaper, she changed gears. The old Rhodes Fabric shop, owned by Ollie and Logan Rhodes, moved to the place next door to where Prestera is located now, and was previously owned by Milford Nichols, Clinton’s brother who ran a small press and competed with his brother printing his own newspaper: The Clay Messenger. After the Nichols’ bought the Tales of the Elk River Inn next to it, and when Ollie and Logan sold their shop, Rene moved it into its present location (the first floor of the Inn), and has owned it for the last 21 years.
She and Brian are the owners of both the Fabric Shop and the Inn. “Since Ollie and Logan’s grandson was Brians’ best friend, they paid for Brian to go to auto mechanic school. And at that time he was still working for my dad who was teaching him to use a small printing press. He decided he liked printing so he went back to Ben Franklin got his certificate in printing and things have snowballed from there.”
Snowballed indeed. Rene’and Brian married and had two girls. She had Allie first, and then Abigail. Tragedy struck the family when an accident happened. Allie was crossing the road to check the mail when she was hit by a driver, but Rene did not let her daughter’s death do to her family what it often does to others. “I would not let it destroy my family. We grieved, Brian and I think instead of pulling us apart it made us stronger. We had to be. We had Abbie who was only three years old at the time.” She uses the loss even today to help the lives of others achieve their dreams, even if their oldest daughter could not. In the past, they have given away scholarships. This year they are sponsoring several 4-H camp students. Her faith is what helped her get through the worst of it. Rene was a Christian school student in her youth and even today practices a strong faith.
Her daughter Abbie is married to Bailey Boggs and gave her a grandson, Tatum. Rene briefly ran a daycare next door, years ago, before taking over the fabric shop. From bus driver to daycare, Rene has worn a number of hats in her lifetime, but the fabric shop is her passion. The fabric shop has over 7,000 bolts of cloth, much of it colorful and varied. She says she keeps prices down and for that reason alone her business attracts a lot of out of county attention. She can underprice material as far away as Parkersburg. Her selection rivals anything available, anywhere in the state. She sells thread, specialized buttons, and everything you can imagine would be needed for this industry. She was fortunate during the 2016 flood that only four inches of water got into the fabric shop. The loss could have been so much more devastating.
The back room of the Inn was not as lucky. She told me that renovation is always ongoing with the recent laying of new linoleum and the installation of flat screen televisions into her ten available rooms. Needed upgrades are always necessary, despite the fact that the lodging business is, was and always will be a feast or famine business. There are certain attractions, such as the Clay Apple Festival that fills the Inn to capacity, and seasons too, like early spring fishing.
“I love this business. I love meeting people, I love that I know the area and can help people by recommending places, or answer questions if they need to go somewhere they barely remember.” She said. “People who come here are here for one of two reasons: they are looking for that piece of home. You know, they moved away or are coming home for a family reunion. And sometimes, that family home isn’t there anymore. They are looking for that feeling of home while they are here visiting. Or they are here because they are working in the area and have no place to stay.”
Rene and Brian and currently enjoying their new roles as Mamaw and Papaw, and they celebrated their 30th wedding anniversary at the end of last month. We don’t have to wish them success, as they have been proving for a lifetime that they have that well covered.
