The Main Thing: Klinner Furniture keeping the main thing the main thing for 100 years
Published 9:38 am Monday, June 16, 2025
John Klinner, left, and Linda Klinner, owners of E.L. Klinner Furniture Company in downtown Clanton.
E.L. Klinner Furniture Company surpassed 100 years in business in 2025.
Photo labeled with buildings from the Chilton County News in 1972.
Photo labeled with buildings from the Chilton County News in 1972.
E.L. Klinner, aged 25, the original founder of E.L. Klinner Furniture Company.
E.L. Klinner Furniture Company’s longtime route man Leonard Lockhart who worked at the store for around 50 years.
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Story by Carey Reeder
Photos by Carey Reeder and contributed by Linda Klinner
“The main thing is to keep the main thing, the main thing.”
That philosophy has been a staple of E.L. Klinner Furniture Company since the early days of the store in downtown Birmingham, and it continues to thrive on that in Clanton as the business surpassed 100 years in 2025. While buildings, locations and partners have changed over the century, the Klinner name and their philosophy has been synonymous.
The long history of the Klinner family and their business was recorded in length by local historian Madge Wilbanks who published an article in The Clanton Advertiser that detailed the inception of the business and how it grew. The article dove deep into the history of the Klinner family in the Chilton County area with the help of John Klinner, dating back in the early 1840s. Johann Heinrick Klinner of Breman, Germany came to the United States and settled in modern day Stanton. He married Rhoda Wilson of South Carolina, and the couple had seven children. One of the children, William “Bill” Klinner married Callie Choate and the couple had 13 children, one of which was E.L. Klinner.
Before WW1, Walter Broadhead, the son of Les Broadhead from Sardis, was working as a collector at a furniture store in Birmingham, then he went off to war. When he came home after his service, he went to work at Rhodes-Carrol Furniture Company. He married Hilda Klinner, who was one of the 13 children of Bill and Callie Choate Klinner. Broadhead later formed Prince Broadhead Furniture in Birmingham.
In 1920, E.L. Klinner was a street car conductor in Birmingham and he began to work for Prince Broadhead Furniture in March 1923 along with R.A. “Buck” Klinner. In 1925, E.L. Klinner went into business with Jim Tiffin later to form Tiffin Klinner Furniture Company in downtown Birmingham to start the business’ long history, but the two separated 11 months after starting the business. E.L. then opened a furniture store in north Birmingham with his brother K. Vernon Klinner called Klinner Brothers Furniture. The Great Depression hit and the brother’s business went away, but E.L. Klinner was persistent to stay in the furniture business and arranged for the Klinner name to stay in with a store with a business partner in Clanton.
In 1931, he got back into the furniture business and opened a new furniture store called E.L. Klinner Furniture on the corner of First Avenue North and Seventh Street in Clanton. At this time, W.H. “Herbert” Klinner, E.L.’s brother, was in Birmingham at Broadhead Furniture but came to Clanton to join E.L. Klinner Furniture and his brother. Then, their sister Alma Dickinson came aboard and joined the business, and the name changed to Klinner-Dickinson Furniture. Herbert expanded the business and opened stores in Talladega, Tuscaloosa and Wetumpka, but the Talladega and Tuscaloosa stores were sold off. Alma and her husband, W.C. Dickinson, kept the Clanton store while Herbert got the Wetumpka store. Alma sold out to E.L. Klinner in the 1960s and Herbert sold out to E.L. in 1982.
In 1940, E.L. Klinner Furniture moved to a building at 108 Seventh Street North and remained there until October 1988. At that time, the Ford Building in Clanton that was built in 1927 became available, and E.L. Klinner Furniture moved to its current location at the corner of Third Avenue North and Seventh Street and it still resides.
“Yet another step on the ladder of tradition which has played such a part in the lives of the Klinner family as they have placed furniture in literally thousands of houses in Alabama … and in Chilton County since E.L. first came to Clanton in 1931,” Wilbanks wrote in the article. “There’s a mighty lot to say for tradition … especially a tradition as honored as that of the Klinner family.”
Nowadays, John, the son of E.L. Klinner, and his wife, Linda Klinner, run the Clanton store and guided the business across the 100-year mark. John Klinner entered the family business in 1978 after serving in the Army Corps of Engineers and after working for Gulf State Paper Company as a structural designer. Linda Klinner stopped her work as a registered nurse and joined John in the family business to run the store. However, both John and Linda wanted to continue to build on the good reputation the store had that was built by E.L. Klinner since it opened in 1925.
“We tell each other that (changing careers) was our early mid-life crisis,” Linda Klinner said. “When we got married he told me ‘I will never be in the furniture business.’ I said ‘Good, because I am never going to live in Clanton.’”
Back in the day, the Clanton store was a particularly great store for E.L. Klinner because of a route man named Leonard Lockhart who worked at the store for nearly 50 years. He had a route that went through rural Alabama and collected payments from customers. They would let Lockhart know what furniture they needed while making his route, and he would deliver it the next time he stopped for a payment, making Klinner almost like a rolling furniture store capitalizing on the rural areas where furniture stores were few and far between. Having that intimate interaction with customers was more personal, and was perfect for the rural and slow-going area of Chilton County.
“It is customer service that is what made this store,” Linda Klinner said.
As time passed, John Klinner moved away from the route man aspect of the business and focused on expanding the customer range. He also revamped their advertising strategy, always giving away items with the Klinner logo on it like fly swatters, calendars and fans.
The biggest change the Klinners have had to adapt to over the years while owning the furniture store is the technology age coming in and everything being digitalized. It was an adjustment period for both the Klinner staff and their customers, but one that was made. However, the Klinners still have a completely paper backup system as well, just in case.
As for the future, the Klinners have a daughter who runs the businesses Facebook page, and they have two grandsons as well, future prospective owners of the family business to take it into another 100 years.
“We will see for sure, but one might,” Linda Klinner said. “We are hoping they feel like they want to carry on this business.”
As times change, the main things of God, family and business, in that order, have remained the main things for 100 years. And those main things are poised to stay true for years to come.
