STORY AND PHOTOS BY KATE DALY

These days you can’t miss the brightly colored paint screaming, “LIQUIDATION SALE” on Jane’s Artifacts’ windows in Hailey. But soon you will no doubt miss the one place where you could buy office, school, party and art supplies.

Jane’s is closing next month, turning the key in the lock for the last time on April 30.

After being in business for four decades, Jane Drussel is going into what she calls “semi-retirement.”  She owns the building at 106 South Main St. where Jane’s has been located since 2004.

First Lite, the hunting apparel store currently operating just around the corner, will be moving into her space.  So, landlord duties will be keeping her busy, as well as overseeing Hailey Thrift, the nearby shop she opened last year at 12 East Bullion Street where she used to run a Christmas store.

Jane’s Artifacts is selling everything, fixtures and all, at gradually increasing discounts.  

“If there’s anything left it’ll be donated to the thrift store,” Drussel says.

At 86 she’s a big supporter of The Senior Connection in Hailey and says with her new thrift business, “once the bills are paid, they get all the profits.”

She points to the ongoing need for more support when she explains the nonprofit delivered 26,000 Meals on Wheels last year, and that’s “not including luncheons.”

Originally from Oklahoma, Drussel lives a couple of blocks away from her stores and has been involved in the local scene ever since she moved to the Wood River Valley, where she raised four kids, in 1970.  

She worked at an office supply store, art store and as a secretary at Bank of Idaho before opening her first stop, Jane’s Paper Place, in Ketchum’s Giacobbi Square in 1985.  Things went so well she expanded her business to Hailey. In 2004 she sold the stores, and she and her second husband, Ken, then switched over to become “sales reps with some of the companies we’d bought from.”

In 2009 when they reopened their Hailey store they had to rename it, and found customers and employees alike flocking back to Jane’s.

Drussel smiles when she reflects on the fact that, “I now am helping the grandchildren of my original customers.”

And she’s been working alongside employee George Green on receiving and pricing inventory ever since the original store in Ketchum.  

 “She’s like a daughter to me,” Drussel adds.

 Hugo Chavez has been a steady presence in the Hailey store since 2009.  

“I’ve had the best crew ever and I can’t thank them enough…My employees all have very good work ethics, and are loyal to the business because they like the customers,” she says.

Come May she expects what they will miss the most is all the school children who came in every year looking for school supplies.

Then there was the “Sunday thing:  The kids would leave their projects to the last minutes and their parents would come in a panic. It was the main reason to stay open on Sundays,” Drussel says.

Looking back, she says, “I’ve tried to do as much as a I can do for the community.”

She has participated in most of the Fourth of July parades (and you know her products have, too).  She led the way as Grand Marshal in 2015 and has served as presidents of the Rotary Club and Chamber of Commerce.

She laughs when she remembers back when the Chamber was responsible for maintaining whisky barrels planted with live flowers on Main Street, and she faced the challenge of keeping them looking perky.

“A group of us girl volunteers” ran up and down the street asking different stores to help fill buckets of water to keep the flowers alive, until thankfully, the city took over the task.

When Drussel’s husband passed away seven years ago, she started doing more crafts with her hands.  She paints, embroiders and sews and is an active member of the 5 Bee Quilt Guild. The group is always working on something be it quilts for a men’s home, hospital or pillowcases for Camp Rainbow Gold. Drussel plans to continue contributing her handiwork to the various causes.

With her new-found time, she figures she will also visit with her six grandchildren, spread out between here, Bozeman and Seattle.

As she winds down her work pace, Drussel expresses gratitude for her long and “very fortunate” run.

“It’s been a great journey; I’ve made many, many great friends, and we have had some good times. I will never forget them.”