JIMMY D. HENRY
AUTHOR BIO
Jimmy D. Henry, Born March 17, 1956, St. Patrick’s Day, in Huntsville Texas a day of celebration honoring St. Patric, the patron St. of Ireland. A day of parades, special foods, music, drinking and lots of green/fun!!
At age 7, I was taught to go to work, when my dad bought me a push mower and told me to get some mowing jobs. Soon after knocking on doors, I had all the yards I could mow, I was making $100.00 a day during the summer. I learned the value of the dollar and challenging work. My brother Joe, who was nine, also collaborated with me. My Dad was born in the Great Depression and had nine siblings. Counting his mom and dad, there were 11 months to feed. He knew what it was to be poor, broke, and hungry. My brother and I have an extraordinarily strong work ethic because of this. We sold the local newspapers door to door. The Huntsville Item has a sales contest for selling subscriptions to their newspaper. Whoever sold the most subscriptions would win a trip to Astro World, next to the Astrodome. My brother and I won 1st and 2ns place. We were so excited about our accomplishments. The year was 1968, I was nine and brother Joe was eleven. I shined shoes at a local Barber shop on Saturdays. I grew up mowing yards, selling newspapers, hauling hay in the summer, shining shoes and other jobs. I went to the city council to ask for a permit to sell watermelon door to door. And got the first grocery permit for selling door to door.
When I was thirteen, and a first-year student in High School, I asked my dad if I could get a job working for any business on the downtown square of Huntsville. At this time like all other small to alms, downtown was the business hub. Full of all kinds of Ma and Pa stores. Walmart was not even heard of at that time. I applied for an after-school job at a store called Kerr’s Department Store. It was a very prestigious Men’s and lady’s store. I got hired and cleaned the floors, ran errands, stocked shelves, and did whatever needed to be done. I really loved the clothing business and my passion showed. At the age of sixteen, I was fortunate to become a clothing and shoe salesperson on the store floor. Hard work does pay off, I worked there through high school and then attended SJSU.
At 21 I was hired to run and manage the store. Kerr’s has its own charge accounts. One of my duties was to open accounts, collect money owed and this is where I learned how important Credit is. At 28, Kerrs sold, and I went to work for the local Ford Dealership as a salesperson. Again, I got to see how important Credit was. I took Credit applications on customers to see if they could buy or not. Because of this interaction with Credit, I my money and credit well. At age 42 I went to work for myself, built and managed a 164-unit storage facility. Meanwhile opening and running my own used car a lot. This allowed me to invest in rental properties and raw land. In 2002 I would the mini warehouses and closed the car lot. So that my wife and I could take care of my mother and dad. Their health was failing. I stayed active managing my real estate and their assets. Dad passed away in 2010. We continued to take care of mom until her death in 2014. Mary and I have three children, IBM 2014 I decided to run for Walker County Commissioner’s Court. I did and won. I ran for a second 4-year term and won. I decided not to run again and retired in December 2022.
I had always had a passion for authoring a Book about Credit. So, I wrote the Key to Understanding Credit by J.D. Henry, and it has become a #1 best seller on Amazon.