Published: September 01, 2009 08:49 am      

Gibson’s Music celebrates 40 years

By Samantha Swindler / Managing Editor

It was a different Main Street in February 1969 when Betty Gibson decided, quite simply, she wanted a music store. 

She had no money and no business experience. But given 40 years of work and business lessons learned the hard way, Betty would become owner of one of downtown’s largest and most successful businesses.

“Formerly, before I had this dream, I had a good job with Social Security. I had a government job,” Betty said. “And then my brothers were in the construction business and they talked me into quitting and keeping books for them. But I had a dream; I always wanted a music store.”

When her brothers disbanded and went out of business, Betty made her move. 

“I was a single mom and I had no money. None. And I wanted a music store,” Betty recalled. “So there was a Baldwin dealer in Somerset, and I had known him for years because I had bought a piano from him at a church. I grew up on Baldwin and I played for church all my life and I taught the neighborhood kids so I had sold a few pianos for him. And I just mentioned one day, I said ‘Ralph, I’d love to have a music store but I don’t have any money.’ He said, ‘well, get you a building and I’ll let you have the pianos on consignment. You can pay me when you sell them.’”

So Betty opened a 500-square-foot music store on Main Street near One Hour Cleaners. She had four or five pianos in the store and taught 50 kids a week piano lessons for $2 a lesson.

“I remember I was living at home with my mother and I would bring some of her lawn chairs down there. It looked like I didn’t have anything in my store and I brought some chairs and spread them out so it looked like I had lots of stuff,” she said. 

Eventually Betty started carrying gospel sheet music. She sold a piano or two, and would get a few guitars and “little odds and ends.”

“It was funny, when I was down the street, the drains were too small to accommodate the buildings,” she recalled. “The drains didn’t drain well and when we’d have a big rain, the cars would go down Main Street — it was when Main Street was two-way — and that water would come under my door and flood me and I had to put my pianos up on concrete blocks to keep them from getting wet.”

Times were tough but Betty said she “just kept hanging in there” until the U.S. Army recruitment office, a 2,500 square foot space, became available on Main Street in 1982. That former recruitment office forms the entrance of Gibson’s Music today, but Betty was not done expanding.

“I just kept growing...” she said, sitting in her 8,500-square-foot showroom. “Huff Drug used to be here. They moved to Falls Road and an exercise place moved here and then I had told my landlord Dan Rawlings, ‘you know, I’m running out of room and if this building becomes available I would like to expand and rent this part.’”

By 1996, the fitness center had gone out of business and Betty began renting the space. She knocked down part of the wall between the stores to create Gibson’s Music as it stands today. Betty is now one of the largest piano dealers in the region, with customers who come from a 100-mile radius to visit her store.

“I wouldn’t trade anything for this business and my experiences,” Betty said. “I’ve learned a lot of lessons, I’ve made wonderful friends because I have made so many people happy by providing them with good instruments at a quality price.”

Twenty-nine years ago, Betty became Betty Comer when she married Gene Comer, but she kept the Gibson name at the store.

“People will come in here and see my store and they’ll be impressed... they think I just inherited all this from some Gibson person because of Gibson guitars and all that,” she said with a laugh.

But you’ve got to know the store’s history to truly appreciate Betty’s accomplishments.

“In the 1960s, a woman starting a business, particularly with no money or financial backing, got no respect,” Betty said. “And I did my share of groveling at the banks. It was a struggle. It’s been a challenge.” 

Though her family supported her by helping out in the shop, they remained skeptical in the early years. 

“They didn’t think I was making enough money, and they’d say, ‘are you going to keep hanging in there?’ and I kept saying ‘there’ll be a brighter day tomorrow, you’ll see. It’ll grow, it’ll grow...’” 

It took more than a decade for the store to grow into a true livelihood. Betty contributes her success to God, and a simple Biblical truth.

“My mission statement has always been to provide people with the best quality instrument at a reasonable price and to apply the Golden Rule — treat people like you’d like to be treated,” she said.

Until 15 years ago, Betty herself taught piano lessons. Today, she has two piano instructors and one guitar teacher, freeing Betty up to handle the day to day operations of her business. 

As a member of the Downtown Merchants Association and an advocate for Main Street long before there was a revitalization program, over the years, Betty became an unofficial spokesperson for downtown.

When she opened in 1969, there were hardly any empty buildings on Main Street — today it’s a fight to bring businesses downtown. 

“It just started gradually and then it just kept going down hill from there, and then pretty soon there was not much retail left down here but Maxine (Maxine Von Gruenigen, owner of Maggie J’s) and I,” Betty said. “I know they tried to get me to move to the shopping center many times and I was not interested in that. I wanted to stay downtown. I wanted to be part of downtown and I’m glad I stayed... I love downtown, there’s something special about downtown.”

There’ll be something special downtown this weekend, when Betty holds her 40th anniversary celebration and Corbin Main Street sponsors Moonbow Nights, a downtown event Saturday featuring outdoor retail sales, a free shuttle to Cumberland Falls to see the moonbow, a mile run, cooking demonstrations and live music. 

Betty’s 40th anniversary at Gibson’s Music starts earlier in the week, with a book signing by Corbin native and author Randall Baird from 1-5 p.m. Thursday through Saturday, piano and guitar performances Thursday and Friday, and a performance by master guitarist Ray Cummings from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday. There will also be refreshments, sales and drawings for gifts provided by Betty’s music suppliers. 

When asked if there’d be an even bigger celebration for her 50th anniversary, Betty gives a hearty laugh.

“Maybe,” she said, “if I’m still around.”