PROFILE 2023 A SLICE OF LIFE IN MARSHALL COUNTY
Anna Chrystine “Christy” Owens is a jack of all trades.
She’s run a convenience store, overseen a school lunchroom, worked in a bank, worked for a land company, served two terms as an alderman, hunted turkey, is a wife, mother, and grandmother (Gidget) and, at 57, she serves as executive director of the Holly Springs Main Street Chamber.
Owens was born to the late Dick Douglas and Ann Douglas in Memphis, Tenn. He retired from Proctor and Gamble and served six years in the United States Air Force.
She has four brothers.
Owens attended Hutchinson School for Girls in Memphis until age 10 when her parents divorced.
At age 12, she moved in with her dad and his new wife, Leigh Douglas and went to Marshall Academy, where she graduated, then went to Ole Miss, where she joined the Phi Mu Sorority and majored in paralegal studies.
“I had entirely too much fun at Ole Miss,” Owens said. “When I left Ole Miss I went to Dawahares Clothing Store.”
She worked there for a while, where she learned the value of a dollar and some other life lessons.
Afterward, she applied and was accepted for a leadership scholarship at Northwest Junior College based on her ACT scores.
“I stayed on the dean’s list after that,” she said.
Only lacking two courses to complete her associate’s degree at Northwest, Owens was offered a job as a legal assistant with Michael Horan, a Holly Springs attorney.
She married her long-time friend from high school, Keith Owens at age 21 and their first child Bailey was born.
Married, she went to work at Owens Grocery from about 1988 to 2004.
The store was originally owned by James and Johnnie Mae Boyette and called Boyette’s Grocery before her husband Keith and his brother Eddie bought the business in 1986. She helped run the grocery until they sold it in 2004.
“We put in a deli at the store in 1995 or 1996,” Owens said. “That turned into a full-time job. We were very fortunate to have a good business. We only closed seven days a year and were open from 7 a.m. To 10 p.m. The kids were raised at the store.
“Many times her son Hank was bedded down on a quilt in a shopping cart. I am so blessed that my mother-in-law helped care for the kids.”
Her mother-in-law owned Miss Opals Daycare, and her children were fortunate enough to stay with their Mamaw.
Owens said her main influences as a child were her father and her grandmother on her mother’s side of the family, Christine Bailey.
“She taught me to cook, how to keep a house, and so many domestic skills,” Owens said. “She was a deeply spiritual woman. My dad taught me the value of hard work, that your word is your bond and to always be proud of where you came from.
“I learned a lot of lessons from my mama, too, but in a softer way.” Owens came from a long line of Anna Chrystines, which is an unusual name for girls, she said.
When she and Keith sold the store, she went to manage the cafeteria at Marshall Academy where all three of their children went to school. She kept that job six years.
Her next job was as a receptionist at the Bank of Holly Springs on the downtown square. She also worked one day a week for Frank Hurdle at Burch and Hurdle land office.
Keith started with the U.S. Postal Service in 1986 as rural mail carrier, only retiring two years ago.
Owens is grandmother to six, the most recent addition a baby boy, William Green Poindexter V.
All her grandchildren are redheads or blonds, coming from Keith’s side of the family.
She took the job as executive director of the Main Street Chamber in 2015, where she presently serves.
It is a job she loves because she is a people person.
Christy’s mother lives nearby in Holly Springs after recently buying a home near the Owens off Chewalla Road. Keith’s mother lives in Oxford with his sister.
“I’m Gidget,” Owens said, after a girl at Owens Grocery deli started calling her Gidget. “The name stuck.”
“I loved serving as alderman,” she said. “I loved working with people in the community. I have been very fortunate to have met some great people and made great friends along the way.”
So is there a bucket list? “Oh, I have a bucket list. Some traveling. Keith and I want to do a grand slam turkey hunt,” she said. That’s where you harvest four different breeds that live only in certain places in the country. “I want to write a book,” she said.”I have no regrets, but since I didn’t finish my education, that’s to be determined.” How did she become a dyed-in-the-wool Mississippi State fan? “My brother and friends went Mississippi State. “I have met life-long friends there at Mississippi State, although I never went to school there,” she said.
There is nothing fancy about Owens and she has ordinary tastes.
“I’m kind of what you see is what you get kind of person,” Owens said. “I graduated high school at 17 and I don’t think I was mature enough for college. I should’ve worked some first.”
Gidget grew up attending Christ Episcopal Church in Holly Springs and Keith was raised in the Church of Christ. So they chose the middle way when Hank was in high school and they are Methodists now.
“I will say my mother said that’s the one thing you ought to talk about before you get married,” Owens said. “We didn’t.”
Owens hobbies are turkey hunting, reading, cooking, canning and playing with her grandchildren.
She summarized her appreciation for Main Street.
“I love Main Street because it is economic-development based in preservation,” she said. “I love history and tradition. Holly Springs has so much to be proud of – our history, stories and traditions are just a few. That goes along with our architecture, African American Hill Country blues and native American history.
“Holly Springs is such a friendly community.”