photos by Cindy Steele
Deb James
~ by Cindy Steele
Deb James got her first sewing machine at the age of five and hasn’ t stopped sewing since. She grew up in Elida, Ohio, a little town near Lima, where her mother was a seamstress, creating goods for several stores in Brown County and big craft shows. Deb made her own doll clothes and toys with her mother’ s leftover material. She loved to tag along with her parents on the trips to Nashville and imagined herself having a store in a little building on Washington Street. She followed in her mother’ s footsteps, making bears and dolls for the past 35 years. Now she is realizing her girlhood vision with her own Brown County store, Bearly Country.
Deb always adored bears, especially old bears. She would take the bears apart and figure out how to make them bigger. Her handmade bears and dolls became Christmas presents to family and friends.
A Life with Bears
Deb needed a way to make money and still stay at home with six young children very close in ages. She started selling bears and dolls at small craft shows and flea markets. They became so popular so fast that she soon sold them wholesale to shops in Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan, and Indiana. Her kids helped with making the body parts and selling. Deb ran the wholesale business for a total of 20 years, first serving more
58 Our Brown County • Nov./ Dec. 2015