‘Mother of Main Street’ retires, Jackie M’s closes
Nicole Tavenner
Jackie Cripe at her clearance sale in Polson.
Nicole Tavenner
People lined up starting at 7 a.m. for the last big sale at 221 Main Street.
Nicole Tavenner
Main Street, Polson sparkles thanks in part to beautification efforts organized by Jackie Cripe.
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
Nicole Tavenner
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POLSON – After more than 20 years downtown, Jackie M’s Footwear is closing up shop.
Owners Jackie and Mike Cripe began their closeout sale last week and will continue until their lease expires at the end of September or until everything is sold.
Mike Cripe began selling shoes 53 years ago while attending high school in Beatrice, Nebraska, and except for a two-year stint in the Navy, has been selling shoes ever since.
After serving in Okinawa, he moved to Liberal, Kansas to sell for Brown’s Shoefit Co. and that’s where he met Jackie. The couple were married 48 years ago, and Jackie began working at her husband’s store three years later.
“When I hired her, it turned out to be the smartest thing I ever did,” Mike said.
In addition to spending quality time with several friends who have health problems, Jackie said she and Mike decided to retire and move to the Chicagoland area to spend time with their son and his family, including their two grandchildren, while they can.
The fact that the owner of their building at 212 Main St. wants to sell was another factor.
“It’s been an emotional decision,” Jackie said. “We love Polson.”
She noted that the retail climate in town is changing. “The Internet is making it a lot harder for businesses to survive,” she said.
Marilyn Frame, co-owner of the downtown Hallmark Store for the past 29 years, said Jackie was “extremely involved” with the Polson Business Community, Parade of Lights and the Flathead Cherry Festival.
“It’s really scary,” Frame said. “Who is going to take over? Anything and everything going on in town, you would always see Jackie working her tail off.”
Fellow business owner Chip Kurzenbaum, who recently closed his business, Gull Printing, across the street, remembered starting the Polson Beautification Committee in 1994 “with two little old ladies” and 12 baskets. Jackie soon joined their group “and helped us grow that to over 100 baskets,” he said.
Frame said they would take the flower baskets down in the fall and turn them into Christmas baskets.
Kurzenbaum called the Cripes “wonderful people, very hard workers” and said they always put Polson first.
Tali Barron, who took over her father Jim Duford’s Main Street clothing store in 1991, said she’s really going to miss the Cripes. “People don’t realize how hard it is to put on these events,” she said.
Ken Avison, co-owner of The Cove Deli and Pizza at 11 Third Ave. West, called Jackie “the backbone of our downtown.”
Jackie M’s is an “anchor store,” he said. “People came to Polson for her shoes from Missoula to Whitefish.”
Avison recalled former Polson Police Chief Doug Chase calling Jackie “the mother of Main Street.” When asked about the moniker, Jackie jokingly replied, “I’m now the grandmother of Main Street.”
She said Jackie M’s Footwear “has had some of the best high school help” over the years, including Jaime Morrelli, who has worked at the store for 10 years, and Krista Seville, who recently returned to help with the closeout sale.
The business, which sells a variety of women’s shoes including Birkenstock, Chaco, Keen, Merrell and SAS, stopped selling men’s shoes three years ago, Mike said.
Jackie invites women to stop into her store and stock up on some shoes as they closeout their remaining inventory.
