For over 30 years, the Mayos have held annual family reunions on the Thomas side of the family. Pictured in July 2019 are: (front row) Reece, Addison, Liam, Alex, David, Lily, and Audrey; (back row) Alison, Steve, Mike, Ann, Ben, Stacy, Lauren, and Patrick.

What father of two decides to start from scratch to create a business when his children are in high school? That is precisely what Linn Mayo – affectionately known as Papaw – did. Mr. Mayo didn’t have a formal college education. What he had was infinitely more valuable – a keen mind and a Marine’s determination to get the job done.

“Mayo Furniture was born from a hard-headed guy who was just naïve enough to not consider the possibility of failure,” Patrick Mayo explained. “Papaw’s sole focus was to provide for his family. His family included me, the youngest grandchild, 20 years before I was born, and eventually extended to his work family which now includes thousands. He had many opportunities to go to work for well-established companies – but he wanted to create something that would sustain multiple generations of his family.”

*The Mayos enjoy shooting photos of their furniture in interesting locations. This Mayo 2262L sofa (in Heirloom Blaze Red), is pictured in front of Oak Alley Plantation in Vacherie, Louisiana.*

Eldest of the third-generation brothers now at the helm of Mayo Furniture, Steve shared how his Papaw’s bond with the community made the impossible possible. “A healthy by-product of his desire to support his family was the honor of supporting a growing community. The community is what allowed him to get on his feet … his determination is what propelled him past every obstacle.” Find a way. “Material providers, who had immense confidence in him, sold to Papaw on credit, and once he was on his feet, he paid them back. We haven’t forgotten what this community did for us. We won’t forget.”

The operation was truly a family business from its inception. Mr. Mayo’s wife, Dean, was a very hands-on partner – at first learning to cut and sew mattress covers. She then moved into the administrative side, overseeing such crucial components as price lists. Sons Gary and Mike would work at the plant every evening after school – ensuring trucks were loaded for the next day. It took the family working together to get the business off the ground – and after college, both sons joined their dad full-time. Gary focused on production management, and Mike concentrated on marketing/sales. In time, they realized they needed additional expertise and hired Don McCoy to assist with Sales and Clyde Permenter as the first CFO.

*Gary, Linn, and Mike accepted a Manufacturer of the Year Award from the Southwest Home Furnishings Association at the Dallas Furniture Market in 1988.*

“Dad’s approach was that we’d gotten our education – it’s time to take it and run with it,” Mike remembered. “One day, this will be your business. You’ll make mistakes along the way – just don’t make the fatal mistake (a decision that would cause the business to fail).”

In order to fully comprehend and appreciate the amazing success of Mayo Furniture, one must get to know the integrity and grit of Linn Mayo. He was always good with machines and had an instinct for how things worked. A natural leader, he became the supervisor in basically every job he ever had. Mike Mayo recalled of his father, “When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, Dad heard about it on the radio three days after it happened. What a different world it was. Like many of his generation, he took it personally.” Mike continued to reminisce about his remarkable father, “After working as a machinist in a war effort factory in Memphis until he was old enough to enlist, Dad knew in his gut the right thing to do. He acted on it and joined what he knew to be the toughest group of fighters on the planet and went to war.”

*Mike finishes up an upholstered chair in the first Mayo facility which was located in Downtown Texarkana during the spring of 1966.*

Following several months as a rifle instructor, Staff Sergeant Mayo finally convinced the Marine Corps to allow him to pursue his original purpose … to fight for his country. His superiors wanted him to go to OCS (Officer Candidate School) in Pensacola or to Brazil to continue to train others on the use of rifles – but he was adamant about fighting for his country. So, he was put on a ship to a small, strategic, but otherwise worthless island in the Pacific called Iwo Jima. Patrick shared his Papaw’s experience there with obvious reverence. “He saw the flag being raised. He saw the horror, the chaos, the carnage ... He saw what men became in their terror. In this hell of war, Papaw learned something about himself. He could operate under the worst of conditions.”

*Patrick, Ben, Steve, and Mike Mayo, with friends, Jared Thomas and Mack Thomas, during a 5-day fly fishing trip to Smith River, Montana, in May 2021.*

“After 10 days on that island, he received the wound that saved his life. Ten days of hell would shape this man for the rest of his life. What he learned in the Marine Corps – what he found on that island, made him the man that could risk his family’s financial security. The experience forged the man who could confidently lay out a plan and execute a strategy that would result in his children graduating from college one generation removed from a high school drop-out and at least two generations – more than 70 years later – having the opportunities he never had,” Patrick recalled. “He created a multi-million-dollar furniture company that has survived everything the world has thrown at it since 1965. To give some perspective … there are only five furniture manufacturers left in Texas. Many states have zero. Mayo is not the largest or most well-known in the industry, but we are among the most respected. Papaw started that.” Find a way.

*A close-knit family, Linn (seated), Patrick, Steve, Mike, and Ben represent the Mayo men in this 2013 photo.*

Mr. Mayo’s spirit definitely lives on in these three accomplished young men for whom he served as their inspiration. He retired in 1989 and suddenly found himself with a great deal of free time – and he filled it with his grandkids. “The old Marine taught us how to shoot, how to hunt and fish, and shared his philosophies along the way,” Ben remembered fondly. “For our generation, most kids lived in a neighborhood where other kids knocked on the door and asked if they could come out and play. For us, it was Papaw calling our mother to see if we could come out and play. So, we did.”

“Papaw was a project person – he was always working on something, improving it in some way,” Steve noted. “He included us in many of his projects – especially if it was learning to catch a fish somewhere. Papaw made sure we experienced everything he missed out on as he made up for lost time.” The seeds of following in his footsteps and giving their all to the enterprise he created were planted during those special days Papaw invested in his grandsons.

In the summer of 2003, Mike asked his sons if they would commit to Mayo Furniture. He was deciding whether or not to buy his brother Gary’s portion of the business. “He made it clear that he needed our help and, with his guidance, we should be able to take Mayo Furniture to the next level,” Ben shared. “Stephen and I were already working at Mayo, so we had really already made that commitment. Patrick was just entering his senior year of high school, so his focus at the time was on making it through the Corps of Cadets and graduating from Texas A&M University. All of us felt that we could make something out of this company.”

What Mr. Mayo started is now in the capable and committed hands of his three grandsons:

Stephen (as his family refers to him) – Texas A&M Class of ’96 – Business Administration. Corps of Cadets Company A-1. President of Mayo Furniture focusing on manufacturing, assets, insurance, and logistics. Married to Alison, two children. “Too many community service points to list” (according to Patrick) – most notably, he served as Mayor of Texarkana, Texas, for four years

Ben – SMU Class of ’00 – Mechanical Engineering. VP of Technology focusing on the data infrastructure that drives manufacturing, order entry, invoicing, and material procurement. Married to Stacy, two children. “We leave the community service to Stephen.” (He and Stacy chaired the Heart Ball one year.)

Patrick – Texas A&M Class of ’07 – Industrial Distribution. Corps of Cadets Company E-1. VP of Sales, Merchandising and Marketing focusing on the overall look/image and reputation of Mayo in the furniture industry. Married to Lauren, four children. “We leave the community service to Stephen.”

Reward is rarely without risk, and the Mayos have always faced challenges head-on. Due to market conditions, the business was stagnant for many years. Find a way. “My opinion now is that there is no way we would ever let Papaw’s creation fail,” Steve admitted. “What the three of us have added to this company is a new perspective in our different focuses – Ben’s ability to speak in code with our machines and the system and align them with his unique understanding of our mechanism; Patrick’s ability to see the big picture and not be afraid to make changes in merchandising practices, marketing, and managing sales; and my ability to run operations and deal with people.“

Regardless of the changes, the company remains as Mr. Mayo made it – where a handshake is valued and partners are chosen for their integrity, not the amount of business they might be able to provide. Mike and Gary were good stewards of the business their father began and steered it thru a considerable amount of ‘troubled waters.’ In the later ’90s and early 2000s, they faced extremely tumultuous times with a considerable amount of furniture manufacturing moving to China. The Mayo brothers made a very strategic decision to not attempt to compete with China’s mass production of lower-priced products. “We chose to focus on what China couldn’t do,” Mike recalled. “We played to our strength of custom-made furniture and gave the consumer what she wanted in two to three weeks. At a time when our competitors were going out of business right and left, that decision literally saved our company.”

The addition of the third generation at Mayo coincided with the introduction of CNC (computerized numerical control) technology in the furniture industry. Now, almost every component is designed on a computer and cut by a machine. A process that might have taken weeks has been honed into one that takes days. While the production mechanism only takes a few days, COVID dramatically increased the lead time on products to 30 weeks due to overwhelming demand. The Mayos liken the challenges presented by COVID to those they faced due to the rise of imports 20+ years before.

“To be fair, ‘Find a Way’ is very similar to ‘I don’t know,’” Patrick noted. “The world has changed many times over since 1965 – it’s completely changed since 2020. We are constantly in new territory. ‘Find a Way’ is why we’ve been able to cope and evolve. ‘Find a Way’ gave us the gift of confidence over time.” Steve added, “Papaw found it in the Marine Corps and on Iwo Jima. Dad found it through trial and error as the most tenured employee at Mayo. We, as Generation 3, found it by learning from Papaw and Dad’s failures and successes along with our own. We don’t have a perfect record, but we’ve certainly accomplished more than Papaw ever imagined. It is what he was most proud of. He couldn’t talk about it without getting choked up.”

“Mayo Furniture has come a long way since 1965,” Steve stated. “We’ve been a conservative but profitable business. The future is bigger. We know how to do it, and we have the resources to do it save one … people. We must ask the community once again for help. We can’t do this on our own. We need the good people of Texarkana to join us. We could double our business in six months if we could find the right people. We could quadruple it over again in six years … with the right people. It will happen – it’s just a matter of time. We will find a way.”

Patrick added, “We are in a very advantageous position. No one is starting more furniture manufacturing businesses in the United States. It’s too hard. That’s unfortunate, but it means great things for Mayo. In our price point, there are maybe a dozen companies with which we compete. Regionally, it’s really only four. I don’t see that changing.”

Not too far over the horizon is Generation 4. Will the company streamline into one branch? Will all eight grandkids come back to the company? These are normal questions that every family business must answer every generation. “There is more than one right answer and I, for one, am looking forward to what the future holds,” Ben shared. “Perhaps one day we will understand how proud Papaw was after passing down our creation to a worthy next generation of Mayos. What does the future hold? I’d say it’s for them to decide … and find a way to make it happen.”

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Finding a Way