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Fine jewelry from the Starnes family in Albemarle now has a fourth generation looking to continue the long tradition of the business.

J.P. Epps, the grandson of Starnes Bramlett Jewelers owner Chris Bramlett, has joined the store’s staff. He grew up in Johnson City, Tennessee, where his mother was a professor at East Tennessee State University and his father was retired from having served as a city attorney.

Epps joins his family at a store whose history dates back to 1898 when the grandfather of Chris’ wife, Pat, F.E. Starnes Sr., opened the original Starnes Jewelers. Francis Starnes managed the store from the 1930s until the mid 1970s, when Gene Starnes took over as manager and became the third generation to manage the store.

Bramlett has worked at the store since 2004. He eventually reopened the store as Starnes Bramlett Jewelers when Gene retired in 2022.

Epps, who earned a degree in philosophy from The University of Tennessee at Knoxville, said family was a consideration when he moved to Albemarle.

“I didn’t have any family in Knoxville,” Epps said. “I have family in Johnson City with my mom, my brother and my dad. But then I’ve also got a lot of family here in North Carolina.”

“Not everybody gets to say they can see their grandparents or their great uncle every single day, and work for them,” he added.

Having worked in finance, joining the staff also meant changing industries to a “totally new industry” in jewelry.

Epps said his decision was also predicated on having a good mentor, saying, “with that being Pops, that’s a no brainer. He’s got the Heisman Trophy of jewelry.”

Having family active in the industry, Epps said, was a big factor in joining the staff.

“I knew I would have security in the industry, but the most important thing was being able to have family,” Epps said. “I had security in the previous industry and worked for a great company, but coming here, I knew I was working for not just a great company but a pillar of the community.”

Bramlett said his grandson wants to bring a youthful approach to the business.

“We need to bring in new ideas going into the future,” Bramlett said. “We’ve got to know the past and add to the past to make the future, and he will do that.”

The store co-owner added his grandson “will be able to connect with a different crowd of the people in the community that Pat and I have no connection with. He will connect to a market we don’t have right now.”

“We don’t want the market to die with us,” Bramlett added. “You have to continually go back to the younger generations coming forward if you’re going to stay in business 100 years.”

The clientele of Starnes Bramlett, which Epps said he mostly sees, is 35 years of age and older, “the people who are set and able to buy jewelry.”

Epps said he wants to connect with his age group, the mid-20s and early 30s, as well as his grandparents connected with their generation.

Bramlett said his grandson will be “a jeweler to people of all ages,” adding he brings “an energy and revitalization that we need to move into the future.”

At 85 years old, Bramlett said “if the story is to continue, we had to have a youthful person to come in and bring that youthful attitude.”

As the oldest retail business in Stanly County, Bramlett added, “we are just so happy to carry it on.”

The owner said his grandson will benefit from the other staff, whom he said were “well trained and so knowledgeable about the jewelry business, they’ll be able to give him the kind of training which will give him stability.”

Epps said the staff, including manager Deloris Talbert and Shelia Chase, have helped him to learn how to keep inventory, run the computers and more.

Bramlett noted the jewelry industry is “changing dramatically” with the invention of lab-created diamonds, noting a customer who said they would rather have “one that God made” rather than one made in the lab.

He said working as a jeweler involves a science of studying diamonds, like how light goes through a stone.

“You have to be educated in the way that diamonds react with their environment,” Bramlett said.

Epps has started his studies of diamonds, which his grandfather said could take upwards of five years to complete.

“That’s a lot of work. I know I’m going to have to put into it.”