River Oaks Bookstore, Houston, Tex., will close at the end of December after 47 years in business. Jeanne Jard, who was one of the original founders in 1974, still helps out at the bookshop, but had passed on daily operations to her son Michael Jones and his wife, Josie. The Chronicle reported that when novel coronavirus hit this year, the bookshop "started delivering books and doing curbside pickup to protect its older clientele, among the highest risk for Covid-19. The owners knew the shop's days were numbered, but the pandemic has forced its final chapter."
In a Facebook post Saturday, events coordinator Whitney Andrews Corson explained what the institution has meant to her: "For the last seven years, I have been beyond lucky to be an employee of River Oaks Bookstore. More than just a job, the Bookstore--and helping to run it--became not only a passion and a calling, but a family and a second home to me as well. The pride and joy I feel for the work I do, for this place and these people, is immense....
"What I really want to say, is this: I am grateful. So. Very. Grateful.... I am grateful for the chance to work for people like Michael and Josie and Jeanne. For all that they have taught me about books and people: about running a small business and the importance of community. I am grateful for the trust they have had in me; for the chances they have allowed me to take. For letting my family become a part of theirs. I am grateful for the wonderful people I get to work with every day, they have become so much more than coworkers. I am grateful for all the customers, readers, authors, and members of this community that have also welcomed me into their lives and onto their bookshelves. I have not taken their trust, kindness, and friendship lightly.
"To all of these people--a bookstore is only as good as the people that love it. All of you have loved us so very well. This Bookstore is not just an 'indie bookstore,' not just a small business. It is both of these things, of course, but more, too. It is a part of this community. It will remain forever a part of the history of this city."