ADDISON, Ala. – Myrna Tuggle is a fixture of Addison, AL. She has lived there her entire life, except for a few years spent in Birmingham. She just celebrated her 82nd birthday in December 2021 and owns and operates the Addison Auto Parts Store. Her husband Jimmy Ray opened the store in 1967. They were married in 1959 just after Myrna graduated high school in 1957. After she graduated, she went to Anderson business college in Cullman and started working at State Farm Insurance in Birmingham and worked there for about seven years. She also kept busy serving as the secretary for the principal of Addison High School and working for Farm Bureau Insurance.
In the late 90’s, her husband asked her to come work with him at the auto parts store. Her husband then passed away in 2005. She said, “I guess that was the Good Lord preparing me to work at the parts store, because I didn’t know anything about it, you know, so when I started to work there, I had a few years of training by Him.”
About her husband, she says, “He was a hard worker, he had chickens, we had a farm, he moved and raked hay, we had two broiler houses and he was just a good husband and father.”
They had two sons: Kevin and Byron. Kevin helps Myrna run the store when he is in the area. Myrna and her husband are both hard workers, and she does not have any thoughts about retiring. “I enjoy working. I enjoy helping people and providing what they need.”
Myrna and Jimmy both went to Addison High School, but didn’t date until after they graduated. Jim joined the Air Force when he was 16, but Myrna said they knew each other in high school and “he was my little sweetheart when I was in the 10th grade.” She added, “He’d already got out of school, but I knew him then from when he played football. He didn’t know that I was his sweetheart.”
Myrna has three grandchildren–Victoria McClellan, Anna Tuggle and Will Tuggle. In the little time she does not spend at the auto store, she fills with various hobbies. She learned to crochet last year and made each of her grandchildren a chunky blanket for Christmas. She likes to grow vegetables in her raised garden beds, and she enjoys hiking at Bankhead National Forest to visit the waterfalls. Despite some hardships in the last few years–contracting Covid in 2020 and having hip replacement surgery last year–she doesn’t plan on slowing down with her hobbies or her work. The Addison Auto Parts store is open from 7:30 a.m. – 4:30 p.m. every day except Saturday, where they are open until 12:00 p.m.
Copyright 2021 Humble Roots, LLC. All Rights Reserved.
