How Ugly Pink Carpet Launched a Full-Scale Renovation at Nebraska’s Oldest Jewelry Store

This story is part of INSTORE’s lead story, “Radical Reinvention”, featured in the December 2025 edition.

Hawthorne Jewelry, Kearney, NE

A GROWING RESOLVE to replace faded pink carpeting led third-generation owner Erika Godfrey to draw up plans to renovate and add to the building that houses her nearly 150-year-old family business.

Hawthorne Jewelry was founded in 1878, making it the oldest business of any kind still operating in Kearney, NE.

When Godfrey’s father, Aub Kendle, died four years ago, she was left with some life insurance proceeds and an abiding distaste for the carpeting that he had installed around 1982.

But when she started considering that relatively simple plan, she realized she’d also love to have a large upstairs office with some precious privacy. And since THAT would require an upstairs addition, why not add luxury showroom space, too? A building contractor suggested granite or marble trim to jazz up the century-old façade. Why not?

The upshot of all that musing is that permits were pulled and construction was scheduled to begin on Nov. 1. The plans had morphed all the way from new carpeting to a gut job.

For Godfrey, the reinvention of her brick-and-mortar store means more than just an aesthetic boost. It’s an affirmation of her decision to carry the torch of the family business in downtown Kearney and a commitment to the business’s future, whether it stays in her family or not.

She’d thought in the past she might relocate the store, but she feels strongly now that downtown is where it’s meant to stay. “I don’t know what made somebody come here and plop down a jewelry store,” she says. “We were on a dust road while Wild Bill Hickok” was traversing that road on a horse. But since they did settle there, those roots run deep.

“I ask myself, how do I move us forward so we’ll still be strong in another century and, even more, pay homage to those who got us this far (my parents and grandparents and the generations before them that were part of this store), all while moving out the old to become clean, fresh and new?”

When Godfrey was growing up, she resolved to leave small-town Nebraska far behind her for a job in international finance, perhaps — but as a young newlywed, she made it as far as Omaha, NE, for a bank job. When her dad called her out of the blue to say he was selling the family business, she still vividly recalls answering that call on a corded landline.

She was surprised by her reaction. “I said, ‘Great,’ hung up the phone and immediately called him back and said, ‘I don’t think we can let go of this. It feels like a member of the family.’”

So, she returned to Kearney and took over the store. “My dad handed me the keys and said, ‘Make the best choices you can.’”

It took a while to find her footing. Initially, she had to ask her dad to help her pay the electric bill. But she also realized jewelry was in her blood.

Along with the renovation, she’s rebranding with an emphasis on ensuring bridal sales are an experience. She wants to get the word out beyond Kearney about what the store has to offer. Kearney has a population of 35,000, but in the region, there are more cows than people.

“We’re smack dab in the middle of the country. How do we expand into the state, into Kansas? We can offer large diamonds, higher quality of service, custom and bench work. We have a unique opportunity to speak well for small business, for longevity, for integrity.”