Deb Brownlee Orr of Lawrenceville was asked to share information about three generations of Bulldogs who are part of the family business, Brownlee’s Furniture. Following is her response.
Three of four men in my immediate family are Dawgs!
Brownlee’s Furniture, a family owned & operated business established as an original “mom & pop” discounter is very pleased to have three generations of University of Georgia graduates, along with another addition from “the Old capital of the Home”–Furnishings World, in High Point NC–make up the management team.
Marvin Jordan Brownlee, Class of 1958 (the first year the Atlanta division actually became GA State College) is the President of the company which started in 1966 as a wholesale furniture factory called American Charms. The factory produced early American medium sized and priced pieces of home furnishing products: several different types of chairs, informal dinette suites, china cabinets, book-shelves, rockers, etageres, night stands, and coffee and end tables. These items were shipped to 42 of the fifty states in the USA.
The economy changed sporadically after the first fuel crisis in the mid-70’s and eventually, global imports looked like the future. Brownlee and his son-in-law, William Joel Orr, a UGA Terry School of Business grad, Class of 1978, turned the establishment into a “mom & pop” discounter: a pure warehouse retail establishment open to the public.
Orr is the Vice President and has been employed at the establishment at 309 Maltbie Street for his entire life–even as a part-time summer worker at 15 years of age. As the factory part closed and more buyers were moving into the metro Atlanta area and suburbs, it became an established, no-frills destination for those looking for quality home furnishing value.
The company continued to receive special orders from large vendors/companies by catalog sales as well. Improved technology and other innovations have helped Brownlee’s keep pace with today’s market.
In the summer of 2006, William Jordan Orr, an MIS major in the Terry School of Business in Athens, became a part of the family establishment upon his graduation. He oversees warehouse, inventory control, computer updates, routing of delivery and customer/quality satisfaction.
In 2008, Wesley Jamison Orr received the Bachelor of Science degree of the Home-Furnishings Department in Marketing Design and Merchandising of the Business School from High Point University and joined the family team at Brownlee’s.
Deb, a former long-time Delta flight attendant, is now known as “the Accessory Queen” at the workplace. She says she is amazed at their teamwork and is very proud of the roosters in her barn making the business, which has been named “Best in Gwinnett” for seven straight years–very special indeed.
