Fairfield Chair salutes reps Craven, Walters
Jay McIntosh -- Furniture Today, June 5, 2006
High Point — Fairfield Chair honored its salesman of the year at the April market and gave special recognition to its salesman of the half century.
R.A. "Tex" Craven has represented the company in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas for 50 years. And it isn't even his first line — he was a rep for six years before taking on Fairfield.
Craven, who turned 84 on May 12, said he expects to stay on the job "till I croak." Fairfield Vice President Alvin Daughtridge said the company's fine with that. After 50 years, he said, "We think it's going to work out."
Craven has worked for 85-year-old Fairfield longer than any other rep ever. He not only continues to sell well for the company, said Daughtridge, but he has contributed three of his children — son Mark is vice president of sales, son Mike is a representative in Virginia and Maryland, and son Jim is a rep in Tennessee, Kentucky and Arkansas.
Oddly enough, Tex grew up in High Point. He said his nickname comes from his prowess, or rather lack of it, as a shortstop on his high school baseball team: "So many balls went between my legs, they started calling me bowlegged from Texas."
The company honored him at market with a dinner attended by his wife, Mary, and their nine children as well as his Fairfield family. His colleagues presented him with a plaque and made a contribution to his church, St. Stephens Catholic Community in Mount Juliet, Tenn.
Fairfield also honored Kevin Walters as Salesman of the Year. He represents the company in Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana and the Florida Panhandle. He has been a rep since 1983, but jokes that he has been with the company "all my life," since his father, Myrle "Slick" Walters, was a Fairfield rep for 42 years before his retirement in 1998.
