KAMPS SELL OUT, END 55 YEARS IN BUILDING

An entrepreneuring couple will retire and a local landmark will change hands after more than half a century.

Ed and Jesse Kamp, owners of Kamp Koin Wash and Kamp's Bookkeeping Service at 119 S. Hope, have sold out to CWI LLC. The new owners are in the midst of a massive remodeling effort and expect to have a new coin laundry open in March.

"When you have something this long, it becomes like a child to you," said Jesse Kamp, who will continue operating her tax business through April 16. "You have to give it up, but Ed and I are at the age where we felt we should move on."

The Kamps have been an institution in the Jackson business community since the 1940s.

Ed started out working on radios in a small shop above Adolph Borgfield's Western Auto store -- now Val's Upholstery -- during World War II. About the same time, Jesse Evans started work at the Jackson Hosiery Mill -- first in the plant and then as secretary.

The Kamps were married June 24, 1945. They moved into the current building in April 1946, renting it at first from John Von Priest, who had just built it. In 1947 the Kamps bought the building and moved into the apartment upstairs. They lived there until 1964, when they purchased their current home on Russell Street.

Using the slogan "House of Bargains," Kamp's Appliances sold HotPoint appliances, then made the switch to General Electric. When television began booming in the mid-1950s, Ed began carrying TV sets and was so swamped that Jesse wound up leaving the Hosiery Mill to take over the bookkeeping end of the business.

"I really hated to leave the Hosiery Mill," she said. "They were like family to me."

The years of selling GE appliances were good ones, though, with the couple winning several free trips, based on their sales record. Trips included Las Vegas, the Bahamas, Miami and Three Lakes, Minn. While in Miami, Earl caught a huge sailfish -- one of the few ever caught off the Miami coast.

Jesse took a week of GE training during that period, learning to design kitchens. The modern kitchen they designed for the Borgfields won them "Kitchen of the Month" honors in July 1957. The plaque still hangs in her tax office.

Earl gauged that it was time to make a move in 1959, closing Kamp's Appliances and buying the coin laundry that a St. Louis man had been operating in space he was renting in the Kamp's building. Meanwhile Earl also started a land-clearing business that lasted several years.

Kamp's Koin Wash operated for 42 years from 1959 until February. Earl has also operated a wood shop and since 1975 has made grandfather clocks from scratch.

He said he has never drawn a payroll check from anyone.

"I've always worked for myself," he said. "I never made a ton of money, but I always had fun."

Earl received a degree from the National Radio Institute in 1943 although his dad insisted he stay on the northern Cape County family farm long enough to bring in the corn crop before leaving for the school at age 20. He returned to Jackson in the fall of 1943.

"I stayed at a boarding house for $3 a week, along with some other single guys like Bill Thompson and Fat Clifton," he recalled. "I'd have breakfast for 25 cents. There were many cold mornings that I'd make the three steps across the street, hit the steps three at a time, light the coal heater in the shop, then go get breakfast while the place heated. Then I'd go back and work all day long."

His first big success was converting battery-powered radios to electric and vice versa during the war. Later he built radios, taking empty cabinets and installing five-tube radio chassis.

"They sold at a terrific price," he said. "They'd sell as fast as I could make them. There was a great demand."

Although they got to sample some exotic vacation spots during their GE days, the Kamps have no interest in retiring to a tropical paradise.

"I really feel Jackson is a wonderful place to live," Jesse said. "We've gone a lot of places that we enjoyed visiting, but I can't imagine living anywhere else."

"Over the years we met many friends and customers," she added. "These are the ones who kept us in business. We're grateful to them and will miss them."

On the positive side, retirement will afford the Kamps the chance to catch up on reading and other hobbies.

"When you run a business, you don't have time to do a lot of things you'd like to do," Jesse said. "I've got books at home I've never even opened. It will be nice to have more time."