Family businesses are becoming a thing of the past. Magee is fortunate to still have a few left from the heyday of an active and thriving downtown. Central Building Supply and Hardware is such a business.
The store opened its doors in 1946 as Central Wholesale Company owned and operated by Walter J. Johnston, Jr., great grandfather to present owner Allyson Allen Berch, daughter of Ted and Jean Allen. Many Magee residents and others from around the area would agree that “Mr. Ted” was synonymous with Central Building Supply.
According to Berch, “The store was his mission field. He loved people, period.” Her parents, Jean and Ted, were married in July 1962 and moved to Jackson. It was also about the time the wholesale grocer converted to a lumber and building supplies provider.
Berch explained how her father arrived in Magee to take over Central. Her great-grandfather said to Mr. Ted, “If you ever want an opportunity at this business now is the time.” She continued, “So Daddy came down here in December 1962. It’s all I’ve ever known my Daddy to do.”
In the mid 1990’s her parents completed a major renovation project of the facility. During the remodeling process they brought in Ace Hardware and kept lumber – plywood, wafer board, trim and molding along with Southern yellow pine and treated lumber. The store also carries interior and exterior doors. It was in 1996 that the business became known as Central Building Supply and Hardware.
Berch was born in 1965 and her younger brother Ted Pruitt Allen in 1969. She began coming to the store when she was a little girl. She worked summers but chose a career in teaching over the family business. “I loved it. That was my mission field.”
Allyson married Dennis Berch in June 1987. She taught her first year at Rankin Academy before moving to McLaurin Attendance Center, where she remained for seven years and then went home in 1993 to be a stay-at-home mom after the birth of their first child, Katelyn.
Berch stayed home for 14 years after two more children were born, Molly and Ben. Then she received a phone call from Ilene Floyd, who was at Simpson County Academy at the time and in desperate need of a teacher. One of Floyd’s teachers left just before school began due to her husband’s job transfer out of state. Berch had never taught above 5th grade but the opening was for a 7th grade position She remembered something her grandfather used to say: “You can do anything for a year.” As it turned out, Berch fell in love with seventh graders.
In 2014, Ted Allen had a massive heart attack and had to remain at home for several months. Berch said that just about killed him. He did return to working six days a week but on a less strenuous schedule. “Daddy was slowing down and not here as much; he just didn’t have the energy,” Berch said. At the same time Central was losing an employee soon and Allen was not entirely sure what he was going to do. Berch offered a suggestion. “I said, ‘Well, Daddy, why don’t you hire me?’ And he looked at me and said, ‘You’re hired!’ I wasn’t expecting it on the spot!” she said smiling.
Allen’s daughter began work full-time at Central in August of 2018. She treasures those days and the sweet memories made working alongside her father. However, in the spring of 2019, Allen saw his family doctor because he was not feeling well.
After extensive testing doctors discovered major concerns with Allen’s liver, diagnosing him with non-alcohol cirrhosis. From there Allen saw a liver specialist at University of Mississippi Medical Center for a biopsy. The diagnosis was made at Thanksgiving that Allen was suffering from Alpha 1 Antitrypsin, a rare genetic disease. “He had it all his life and didn’t know it,” Berch explained. It can affect both lungs and liver. At this point it was isolated to Allen’s liver. The only treatment is an organ transplant. Being 80 years old and a heart patient, he was not a candidate for the procedure.
After several hospital stays, some touch and go, Mr. Ted returned home. Due to the immediate onset of Covid-19, Jean, Allyson and Ted began taking turns staying up with Mr. Ted at night, all living under one roof. As time progressed Katelyn, Molly and Ben helped out too. Mr. Ted passed away on March 21, 2020. Berch remembers those days as “swee,t sweet times but difficult that last week and a half.”
“God was a step ahead of me and always has been. God goes a step ahead of us and we don’t even realize it sometimes until it’s behind us. But then we can look back and we can see that He was going ahead of us the whole time.”
