leather loveseat



After 70 years in the furniture business, his business is currently shutting down.

Ruth got his start getting his neighborhood buddies to assist him haul mattresses and driving a delivery truck. Now, health issues are currently forcing him to close down his Gerard's Furniture shop.

"I ain’t going home to mope about it," Ruth said, sitting in the middle of the Florida Boulevard showroom. "I am going to continue functioning. I must deliver this furniture all ."

Twenty-two years ago, when he turned 65, Ruth brought to help the stock is sold off by him.

"So I came back."

Ironically, the identical firm that assisted him with all the retirement sale back is assisting him with this sale.

Ruth, 87 does business like he did. His store doesn't have a website. "I really don't text and that I do not email," he said. "Just been a few years ago we have a computer for accounting."

Gerard's includes a focus on luxury furniture made with premium leather.

"All that stuff on the world wide web, it is like going to the boats. It is gambling. You do not know what you are going to have," he said. "Some of this leather is seconds, some of it's rejects."

Ruth started working at the furniture industry during his senior year at Baton Rouge High at Lloyd Furniture Co., at 1126 North Blvd.. After graduation, he attended LSU joined the Coast Guard during the Korean War.

He returned to Baton Rouge and also to his occupation.



He was a salesman in Hemenway's, Ruth got into hydroplane racing. He was a catalyst for the Tom Cat Baby, a boat with a Corvette engine which won the most dangerous and prestigious Pan American race on Lake Pontchartrain in 1958.

Throughout the boat races, Ruth became buddies with Lewis Gottlieb, president of City National Bank. Some teams that were rushing were backed by gottlieb.

Ruth got a call one afternoon. The owner of Simon Furniture Co. had expired and his children weren't interested in taking over the enterprise. Would Ruth be interested in having a furniture shop?

Gottlieb told him to have a look at the store, and he'd help him finance the deal, when he had been interested.

"It was a nice shop, and that I knew I could do some good over there," Ruth said. The issue was money. However he'd have a $10,000 life insurance coverage he bought from a fellow member of the Red Stick Kiwanis Club.

"Mr. Gottlieb advised me to deliver him that insurance coverage to the bank," Ruth said. "He told me'You are going to create it."

Gerard's Furniture opened in 1530 Foster Drive in 1966. There were three workers: a bookkeeper and the Ruths. During the day, Ruth sold furniture. In the evenings, he also delivered.

At that time, the trend in furniture was Mediterranean- and Spanish-style furniture. A Atlanta furniture salesman detected Gerard's Furniture and told Ruth he needed to get some of those items in the store to make it successful. Ruth told the guy he did not have the money to purchase the furnitureso he got them to ship three suites of Mediterranean-style furniture on credit to Gerard's and called a Virginia maker. "That cranked business up," Ruth explained. "We offered the hell out of that furniture."

Ruth discovered about a shop.

"It cost $2 million to restore the whole building," he explained. The loan was really big, it had to be divided between CNB and St. Landry Bank in Opelousas.

Gerard's Furniture's Florida Boulevard place opened around 1975. The store won acclaim for its completeness of the choice, which included fabrics, artwork, furniture, rugs and decorative accessories. 1 room is filled with George Rodrigue prints. His son Larry has a bunch of original Louisiana art and prints at a different part of the shop.

To round out the selection the major furniture markets are visited by Ruth in North Carolina.

"Baton Rouge has always been interested in great taste and traditional furniture," he explained. "The people who buy fine furniture want to sit inside, want to feel this, and if they have any understanding in any way, unzip it and see what's inside ."

Through the years, Ruth has had health problems, including cancer and diabetes. Recently, he had been diagnosed with lung disease. That led the store to close after meeting with his wife and four kids.

The choice was made to liquidate the business because his kids have professional occupations.

"I never got rich, but I was able to raise four children, send them all off to college -- and not need to pay any associations or lawyers to get them out of trouble," he explained.

Regardless of his years in business, Ruth visit the website stated he decided to close the store.

"My family would go crazy trying to work Read More Here out everything in the furniture shop," he explained.

He also made a point of helping his children and eight grandchildren find items in the store to help decorate their houses.

Plans are to spend promoting the inventory off in Gerard's. The store will close when all is gone.

Ruth said he's seen a boost in customers since announcing his business was shutting down. The day after it was announced he was closing, 500 people showed up at the store. The next day about 400 people were there.

"We had them come from 20, 30, 40, even 50 years ago to buy things on our economy," he explained. "It's been rewarding."

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