Every day -- sometimes seven days a week -- Don Osbourn goes to work at the business he founded, just like he has for the past 67 years.
Not only has Don, who will turn 90 in November, continued to operate Osbourn's Engines for years beyond retirement age, he has passed down Osbourn's Automotive Store to his son Roger, who in turn passed it on his sons Donny and Rex.
Together the three generations offer customers more than 150 years of experience.
The two businesses face each other -- Osbourn's Automotive Store is on the west side of Lincoln Street and Osbourn's Engines is on the east side.
Don, who rebuilds gasoline and diesel engines, is one of the few engine rebuilders left in the area.
Osbourn's Automotive sells auto parts, and rebuilds and services starters, generators, alternators and hydraulic hoses. Customers come to Osbourn's Automotive from as far as Joplin, Mo., for the repair service, Donny said. Rex rebuilds the alternators and starters while Roger rebuilds the generators. The store also offers hydraulic hose repair 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Don's family moved to Siloam Springs when he was 6 years old. As a teenager he worked at Herman Finn's Salvage Yard without pay so he could learn about cars, Roger said about his dad.
Then Don went to work at Bob Wilson Pontiac, Buick, GMC dealership. They supplied delivery trucks for Pet Milk so it was nothing to start tearing down an engine at 6 p.m. and finish rebuildimg it by 6 a.m. the next morning, Roger said.
Don turned 18 in 1942 and joined the U.S. Army Air Corps. When he went before the draft board, they told him if he would enlist he wouldn't have to carry a gun. With his mechanic's experience he was assigned to the motor pool, taking care of maintenance.
He went to Fort Chaffee for basic training before going on to Keesler Field in Biloxi, Miss. He was also stationed at Lockbourne Arm Air Force base (now Rickenbacker Air National Guard Base) in Columbus, Ohio, where he met his wife.
Martha Lawson was standing on a street corner when her friend dared her to give a kiss to the handsome soldier walking by. She took the dare and so began a relationship that would lead to 49 and a half years of marriage and 12 children. She passed away after battling cancer in 1993.
Don made one trip around the world during his years in the military. He was stationed in India and came back through Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, Roger said.
After the war Don came back to Siloam Springs. He opened a shop in a building rented from Dixon Iron and Metal. During the war, Don had learned to play the fiddle and on Friday nights he would clear out his shop and hold a dance in the space, Roger said.
Don opened his current automotive business in 1947. He still has the original business license dated 1947 hanging on the wall. The license cost $10.
The original business was located on a slab to the north of the existing parts store. In 1958 Don built the building that houses the parts store for $2,000.
Don's son Roger built his career around the family business. He started to work in the parts store when he was 15 years old in 1966, although he had already been helping out during the summers for several years. Roger also followed in his father's footsteps in his military career, spending two years in the Air Force before transferring to the Air National Guard for another six years.
From 1975 until 1985, both the parts store and the engine repair store were located on the east side of Lincoln Street. In 1985, Roger made a deal with his father to take over the parts store and moved back to its original location on the west side of Lincoln Street -- while Don would focus on engine repair. In April 1986 he and his wife, Delores, officially bought the parts store from Don and Martha.
In 2013 Roger passed the store on to his two sons. Roger now works as a bus driver for the Siloam Springs School District and spends most of the rest of his time as a consultant in the parts store.
Don's health took a turn for the worse in February. His lungs were in bad condition and he was put on hospice care. Since then he pulled through, gained weight and went back to work, his son Roger said.
Don, who is not a man of many words, said he didn't have words to describe how it felt to watch his son and grandsons carry on his business.
"I'm very proud to turn it over to them," Roger said of his sons Donny and Rex.
Donny, Roger's son and the oldest grandchild, didn't want anything to do with the family business when he was growing up. He worked at Arkansas Western Gas for a number of years before coming back to work at the auto parts store.
"It's been a challenge, but it's a challenge I like," he said.
The recent recession has been good for the auto parts business, Donny said. The average age of cars on the road has gone up from nine years to 11.8 years because people are keeping them longer instead of buying a new vehicle, he said.
"Our business has never been better due to the management skills of Donny and Rex," Roger said.
The auto parts store's customers are "about a 50-50 mix" between professionals and do-it-yourselfers, Donny said.
The biggest thing the store has to offer is the experience of the employees, he said. They have parts catalogues going back into the 1930s and have the knowledge to find exactly what the customer is looking for.
"When you've been in this business all your life," Roger said, "you better know something!"
General News on 07/30/2014