The Red Chair

BEHIND THE SHOT

Written by JACKIE KENNEDY
Photographed by JACKIE KENNEDY and CHRIS MARTIN

Whether waving at passersby, brushing his hair between shots, or rejoicing when the photoshoot was done, Mark Knox was the man of the hour. Photos by Chris Martin

By February, we’d already had our cover shot planned for this issue. It’s our third annual Best of Coweta edition so, as in years past, we would take a photo of one, maybe two, of our outstanding local business owners and/or their products.

After the March 26 tornado struck Coweta County, we knew we had to rethink the entire issue, including the cover. One of our first ideas – and the one we kept returning to – involved a red chair.

You see, Knox Furniture is one of the 84 first-place winners in our Best of Coweta Readers’ Choice contest. Our readers voted them Best Furniture Store. It’s a fitting tribute for store owner Mark Knox who grew up in the family business that started here in 1955. When he was a kid attending Atkinson Elementary School, he would walk to the furniture store every day when school was out. Today, his wife Danette and daughter Sara carry on the Knox family tradition by working with him at the furniture store.

Mark Knox poses patiently in his red chair as NCM Creative Director Sandy Hiser and Photographer Chris Martin work to get the shot. Photo by Jackie Kennedy.

Along with being a Best of Coweta winner, Knox Furniture was one of several local businesses slammed by the March tornado. The monster storm ripped off a roof, dumped water in a showroom and left piles of debris scattered all around the store. Months after the storm, the Knoxes are still dealing with it and estimate it will be at least a year before life returns to normal at their Greenville Street location across from the Coweta County Justice Center. Until then, they’ll be doing business out of their warehouse on 701 Corinth Road and at a temporary location at 18 Savannah Street.

The Knox family and business has had to deal with a lot of moving parts since late March. But don’t expect them to complain. It’s not their style. After what the tornado put them through, they’ve put everything in perspective. They’re taking everything
in stride.

Owner of the East Broad Street tornado-damaged home on our cover, LaVann Landrum, right, chats with fellow tornado victims, from left, Mark Knox and Connor and Sara Knox Rund. Photo by Jackie Kennedy.

And that’s what made Mark Knox the perfect person to put in a red chair – a chair from his award-winning store, no less – in front of a tornado-ravaged home for our cover.

How best do we depict in one photo our Best of Coweta winners, a once-in-a-lifetime tornado, and the Best of Cowetans who maintained their composure to address the community’s great need post-storm?

With a tornado victim putting the storm behind him and, with a smile, looking to the future — head-on.

Thank you, Mark Knox. Godspeed.

NCM