ABOUT US

Our Founders

Founders Luther Green Puckett JR and his wife Mary Marguerite Atnip Puckett founded Puckett’s April 16, 1954. LG Jr. knew he wanted to marry Margarita as soon as he met her. Marguerite’s only issue with that was that he must have a job before proposing. He asked several times but she stood her ground. Soon after, LG Jr. Tennessee Polytechnic University (Tennessee Tech University), where he played football, and accepted a job as Manager of the Jenkins and Darwin dry goods store in Livingston. Finally Maguerite agreed to marry him in June of 1937.

His ability to type at an unusually fast pace on a typewriter is what made LG Jr. a Captain Yeoman. Stationed in Key West, Florida, he served in the Navy as Captain’s Yeoman, Ping Jockey, and Translater from 1942-1944 during World War II. He returned to Livingston after the war and resumed managing Jenkins & Darwin. When Jenkins & Darwin offered the manager position to LG Jr, the Livingston store was at the bottom of 40 department stores. He began repairing radios and selling them at the store. After slowly adding other electronics and appliances, he discovered this was truly his niche. Although LG Jr had helped the store climb from 40th to 1st ranked Jenkins & Darwin store, executives eventually decided they preferred to be in ONLY the clothing and dry goods business.

In 1954, LG Jr sold his small amount of stock in Jenkins & Darwin and went into business for himself, thus Puckett’s Furniture and Appliances was born. In 1955, Puckett’s Furniture moved to East Main Street on the square in Livingston. In the early years, LG Jr, with Marguerite would sell furniture during the daytime and deliver furniture at night. The didn’t even have a delivery truck. Instead they would hook a trailer to their 1952 Pontiac and deliver that day’s sales. LG Jr and Marguerite’s son, LG Puckett III started working the family business at age 7, and at 14 became a freight hauler and delivery man. One memory LG III has is his father sending him out to deliver a new 19” black and white television complete with antenna. “After coming to the end of an old country road, I had to turn off onto a dirt road. When that one ended, I managed to drive down an old creek bed until I came to a house. Everything at and around the house was neatly in place. We installed the antenna and the man already had a table set up for the television. As I began setting up the television, I noticed there was no place to plug it in, I asked the man, he said ‘Plug it in? You mean you have to have electric?’ The man kept the TV and had electricity put in.”

Many people in our community remember when the floor and wall of our West Main location caved in during the late 70’s. A few loads of dirt were placed against the store’s upstairs wall, and the weight was too much to support. After the dirt pushed its way through, it then caused the floor inside to give way, creating a huge gaping hole. The damage was estimated around $90,000 but the building’s value was only $50,000 at the time. After the wall collapsed, LG III built our new (and current) location in 1980. It gave us extra space — 45,000 square feet to be exact! In 1984, LG III added a Berkline Gallery. We proudly carried Berkline because they were built right here in Livingston. The factory employed hundreds of people in our county and surrounding areas. A Radio Shack franchise was added to Puckett’s in 1997. We carried satellite dishes and cell phones, both of which had just hit the scene.