Abby McMurry Ferguson operates great-grandmother's store

SULPHUR, La. (AP) — Abby McMurry Ferguson, who chose social work as her college major and did a stint for the Peace Corps, did not see retail in her future. Now, she can’t see herself doing anything else.

Ferguson, the owner of Etie’s, a Children’s Shoppe, is the great-granddaughter of Cora Etie who opened the first Etie’s in 1917. Etie is most likely a shortened derivative of Etienne’s, according to Ferguson. It is pronounced, ee-TIES (long e, long i, emphasis on the second syllable).

“My great-grandmother was a woman ahead of her time,” Ferguson said. “At first, the store was a millinery, a hat store. She sold piece goods during the war, then women’s and children’s clothing.”

In 1928, the store moved into the building it’s in now, at 206 S. Huntington St. in Sulphur, and operated at that location successfully until 1998.

Ferguson said her great-grandmother was not only ahead of her time because of her success during an era in which it was mainly men who were “in business.” She was also savvy when it came to staying current with trends.

“My great-grandmother gave shoppers what they wanted,” Ferguson said. “She continued to do that. My grandmother (Jeanette McMurry) and aunt (Debbie Able) continued to do that until what shoppers wanted was to be able to go to the mall. The store closed when they decided they did not want to change any more than they had.”

Ferguson and her husband moved home to Sulphur in 2017. The family still owned the building. When the architect leasing the shop moved out, Ferguson’s father thought he might put the building up for sale.

“She told her husband, ‘Dad wants to sell the store. We have to do something.’ He said if I can think of something we can do, we’ll keep it. I’m too sentimental for...