Tar Heel Tire Sales & Service reaches 60-year milestone

Warren County landmark business Tar Heel Tire Sales & Service reached another milestone in its long history this spring by celebrating its 60th year of operation.

Eddie Clayton opened Tar Heel Tire Sales & Service in 1965. Today, his son, Kenny Clayton, and grandchildren, Brooks Clayton and Meredith Kelly, continue the family business.

The Clayton family has amassed a scrapbook of photographs, newspaper and magazine articles that document how the business has moved and grown, along with photographs from the construction of Tar Heel Tire’s current building on the Norlina-Warrenton Road just outside the Warrenton Town limits. The family has also kept the business’ first deposit bag dating from the 1960s.

Tar Heel Tire was established when it purchased Baxter Tire and Recapping Company on Warrenton-Norlina Road in 1965.

Eddie Clayton had been working at General Tire, now East Carolina Tire Company, in Henderson, around that time and was approached by Warrenton trucking company Eastern Motor Lines about moving to the former Baxter business and working on company tires. He agreed, and in March 1965, Tar Heel Tire opened where Lynch’s Auto is now.

As Tar Heel Tire grew, it later moved to the site of the former Pittard Studebaker dealership on East Macon Street (where Walgreens is now). The recap shop was across the street in what had been a Chevrolet dealership. In 1997, Tar Heel Tire moved to its current location.

For the Clayton family, the heart of Tar Heel Tire Sales & Service is its people, many of whom worked with the business for decades or are still working after a number of decades.

Among them are Johnny Jones, who began working there on Sept. 19, 1971.

Kenny Clayton recalled Jones walking by Tar Heel Tire when it was located at the former Studebaker dealership site.

“We were in need of help, and Johnny was walking down the street,” Kenny said. “Daddy hollered for him and motioned for him to come across the street. Daddy asked him if he wanted a job. He said, ‘I guess,’ and has been here ever since.”

Johnny said that he used to run the service truck, changed car tires, shredder tires, tractor tires, and used to wash and wax cars when Tar Heel Tire was in the downtown area. Today, he continues to do much of the same work on tires at the shop — and he trains new employees.

“Johnny is somebody who just loves to be around people,” Kenny said. “He is well liked by customers.”

Johnny Jones, who was born and raised in the Baltimore Road area, remembered that he had just turned 20 and was looking for a job when he talked with Eddie Clayton.

“What keeps me going all these years is working with good people,” Johnny said.

Longtime employees who have retired in recent years include Randy Shearin and Bobby Branch, both with 32 years of service; and William Skipwith, who worked with Tar Heel Tire for 25 years.

A number of current employees have been with the business for many years, including William Cox, 27 years; Michael Burroughs, 13 years; and Raymond Evans, 12 years.

Tar Heel Tire has experience many changes related to the business over the years, especially in the equipment needed to work on cars. However, one constant has remained over the course of 60 years: the Clayton family.

Kenny, who has spent much of his life working at the family business, began assisting his father, Eddie, at the age of 10 or 11. After working at Tar Heel Tire through high school, he studied police science and worked for the Wilson Police Department for several years.

However, Eddie Clayton asked his son when he would be coming back to Warrenton. Kenny returned in 1979.

Eddie began the business with four employees: two in the shop and two servicemen. By 1989, it was not unusual for 250 tires to be recapped in one day.

Eddie “retired” from the business in 2009, but still came to work almost every day for many years prior to his death in 2016. Kenny previously recalled that, even in retirement, his father enjoyed picking up needed parts in Henderson and Oxford, and especially loved greeting customers.

Kenny’s adult children, Brooks Clayton and Meredith Kelly, have now joined the list of longtime Tar Heel Tire employees. Meredith started working there in June of 1999 before leaving for a few years for school. Then she returned to the family business. Brooks Clayton began working at Tar Heel Tire in June of 1997.

“I grew up around Tar Heel Tire,” Brooks said.

He recalled that he and his brother, Jeremy, used to play in the shop when it was located in the downtown area. He began working at Tar Heel Tire at the age of 16 after it had moved to its current location. What began as work after school and on summer breaks grew into a career.

Tar Heel Tire continues to offer a range of services to keep vehicles on the road: front-end part work on cars and light trucks, including shocks, struts, brakes and oil changes; handling transfer tires and making service trips for tires on tractors and forestry equipment. There are service trips to areas that include Louisburg, Middleburg, Aurelian Springs and Granville County in North Carolina, along with Skipwith and Red Oak in Virginia.

Customers from the Warren County area and beyond come to Tar Heel Tire. Kenny Clayton said that the customer base includes people from within a 75-mile radius. “One customer comes from Buxton near Nags Head to buy tires,” he said.

A number of Tar Heel Tire customers are multiple generations of the same family.

“We want anyone who comes in the door to come back,” Kenny said. “ Families have been customers from granddaddies and daddies on down the line. We’ve had many loyal employees and customers, which has been a plus.”

Kenny said that he is “not retired yet,” and still works full-time. He expressed gratitude for the work of Brooks and Meredith to keep the family business going. There is no slowing down at Tar Heel Tire, where Eddie Clayton’s favorite saying sums up its specialty: “If it’s a tire, we can handle it.”