"The hundred-year journey of Dawahare's clothing stores, which has culminated this year in the family business' centennial celebration, started, like many successful companies, with one man's dream.
The man, Serur Frank Dawahare, was born in a small village in Syria, in 1888. Like many other immigrants, he came to America to escape religious persecution. Nearly penniless and unable to speak English, Serur took a job in a sweatshop in New York City, where he met his wife, Selma. A few months later, Selma's brother suggested that the young couple might have better financial prospects in Kentucky, where coal mines were opening.
The Dawahares packed up their lives and moved to East Jenkins, Ky. Serur started his own business as a peddler with a pack on his back. He sold his wares house to house in the coal camps of eastern Kentucky.
Within a few months, Serur and Selma had saved enough money to open a small store. In 1922, the Dawahares moved to Neon, Ky., where they opened a larger store and lived, with their growing family of children, on the upper floor.
Serur taught himself to read and write in English. He kept his own books. He and Selmaworked from early morning until late at night, six days a week. They hired a clerk to help, but only on Saturdays, for $1 a day.
The Dawahare family grew to include 11 children, eight sons and three daughters. Serur and Selma named three of their sons after U.S. Presidents: Woodrow Wilson Dawahare, Warren G. Harding Dawahare, and Herbert Hoover Dawahare.
All of the children were taught to work, and they had increasing responsibilities as they grew older. They also learned to work together. One lesson Serur taught his sons is what the family calls "The Stick Story."
Serur gave each of the eight boys a stick and told them to break it. They did so, snapping each one easily. Then he aligned the sticks together and had each son try to break the bundle. None of them could. "If you stick together," their father told them, "you will never be broken."
As his family grew, so did Serur's dream. He wanted to expand his business to have a store for each of his sons. In 1935, the Dawahare's store in Whitesburg opened, and the family moved there.
Selma died in 1939. The youngest Dawahare child was only six years old. The older children helped their father run the business. During World War II, the three daughters, Nellie, Mary, and Sybil, ran the business with Willie, the oldest son, while their other brothers were either in the army or still in school.
In 1946, the third Dawahare's store opened, in Pikeville, followed the next year by the store in Hazard. In 1951, Serur died suddenly, following a heart attack, but his dream of a business large enough for all of his sons to work together lived on.
Willie, the oldest son, had always wanted to open a Dawahare's in Lexington. In 1961, the store in Gardenside opened. This store was the first one beyond the Dawahares' home base of eastern Kentucky.
Today there are 27 Dawahare's stores all across Kentucky and one in West Virginia. Of the sons, four are still active in the business. Martin works a few hours each day and signs all of the expense checks. A.F. runs Hoover's Furniture. Frank manages the family's real estate holdings, and Dee does community service.
Six members of the third Dawahare generation have joined the family business, including Harding, who has been president for about four years. And now, two members of the fourth generation work for the company as well.
Asked about the success of his family's business, Harding Dawahare said, "No one person can take credit for what we've been able to do."
Family members have been able to work together because "most of the time we respect each other. These
values were instilled in my dad and uncles and passed on to the [next] generations."
Board meetings can involve heated discussions between family members, but then they put their differences aside and go along with a majority vote or the president's decision. "Our whole goal in life is to move things forward," Dawahare explained.
Dawahare's has a total of about 500 employees, and the company is particularly known for its selection of collegiate and team apparel. The stores had long sold basic Kentucky sweatshirts, but about 20 years ago, the company joined a national fashion trend for Harvard and Yale items. The national trend ended, but Dawahare's built on it by expanding their line of clothing for UK and other Kentucky universities.
A logical expansion of that part of the business is the company's newest venture, the CatBird Seat. These smaller stores of 2,000-4,000 square feet (compared to the 15,000 square feet of a regular Dawahare's store) carry only team and collegiate
apparel.
The Dawahares have demonstrated an understanding of the close relationship between sustaining a business and nurturing its community. Each year the company donates a clothing gift certificate to each Chandler scholar. Good for the duration of the scholarship, the intent is to ensure that these budding professionals have the clothing they need to make positive impressions.
The Kentucky Future Leaders Foundation (formerly the Happy Chandler Foundation) gives an annual award for the "Kentuckian of the Year." The 2007 winner was not one particular person, but the Dawahare family. Most family members were able to be at the ceremony to celebrate the award and their company's 100th anniversary together.
Filmmaker Michael Breeding created a short tribute film titled "The Dawahare Story" for the awards ceremony. Breeding's film, based on archival footage and contemporary interviews, may be viewed at www.michaelbreedingmedia.com/dawahares.html.