THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, January 9, 1997 TAG: 9701090316
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: D1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY LINDA MCNATT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: 84 lines
The telephone messages on her desk are piling up like linebackers scrambling for a fumble on the 10-yard line.
But Ginger Owen, standing in the center of Art Jones Travel Service on Market Street, talks football - the games of the weekend past, the weekend future and - the inevitable - Superbowl Sunday on Jan. 26.
Small talk, for Owen, is part of the job. She's the owner and new quarterback now for the small, independent travel agency that built a reputation on a former Pittsburgh Steelers player and his love for all the games.
``Mr. Jones doesn't miss an event,'' Owen said, slipping into present tense, as she often does when she talks about her former boss, Art Jones.
``He was even getting into NASCAR,'' she said, back at her desk. ``He has a lot of contacts, is quite the promoter. He knows how to do it first-class.''
Art Jones, who died at age 76 in August 1995, was a football standout at Suffolk High School. He went on to be named All-Southern Conference three times at the University of Richmond and twice All-American.
Jones was all-pro in his rookie season with the Steelers. After serving in the U.S. Navy Air Corps in World War II, he returned to the Steelers and retired in 1947.
But Jones, Owen said, never really left the game. And his memory lives on.
``He was bigger than life,'' she said. ``He went to all of the NFL meetings, the Final Four - all of those events. He always seemed to be able to get tickets to anything when the tickets were very hard to get. People still expect it.''
Maintaining Jones' reputation for doing the impossible was just one of the challenges Owen faced when she decided to purchase Art Jones Travel. She also had to cope with major changes in the travel industry.
``We've had Redskins home tickets for as long as I can remember,'' she said. ``Our clients always knew where to come when they wanted something like that. We've been lucky enough to maintain the contacts.''
For 25 years after his professional football career, Jones was a coach, teacher and principal at his alma mater, Suffolk High. After that, he was an administrator and headmaster at Nansemond-Suffolk Academy.
Owen, 50, was his secretary at Suffolk High, and, when he opened the first agency in Suffolk, she joined him there.
In 1981, Jones sent her to start a branch of the agency in Portsmouth. Another branch opened in Franklin.
The Portsmouth agency eventually went out of business. The Franklin agency still exists in Jones' name, but under a new owner, Genie Councill.
After Jones' death, the Suffolk agency, with Owen in charge, continued to operate as part of his estate. When she had an opportunity to buy it, Owen said, she realized that the purchase would be as much out of a sense of loyalty as anything else.
In her years of working with Jones, Owen said she saw the travel agency business change drastically. It's not as lucrative as it once was.
Just a few years ago, agents garnered 10 percent of the cost on air fares booked, for example. Today, the fee is capped at $50 - whatever the cost of the ticket. Travel agencies answer to the Airlines Reporting Corp., a federal agency that weekly debits agency bank accounts for whatever the cost of air fares that agency has booked.
It was the Airlines Reporting Corp. that came to inspect the agency when Owen applied to purchase it.
``These people are real sticklers for dotting i's and crossing t's,'' she said. ``But I knew I was purchasing an office with a long-term, great reputation.''
Computers have made the job easier, less time-consuming, she said. Electronic ticketing of flight reservations has helped. There still is some fun involved.
``We have a lot of opportunity to travel,'' she said. ``It's important that we go to the resorts, for example, so that we can sell the product to our clients.''
Often, those trips are paid for by product owners. Owen still longs to go to the South Pacific. Her favorite vacation spot is Bermuda.
``It's a very clean place, nice, not overdone,'' she said.
But more and more often these days, Owen's thoughts already are at the Superbowl. Her clients expect it. So would have Art Jones.
``It was real important to him to keep this agency going,'' she said. ``When I bought the agency, I also bought the name. It's very important to us to keep his name out there.''
And, if you happen to have an eye on New Orleans for Superbowl Sunday, ``We're a great team here,'' Owen said. ``We'll certainly do everything we can.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Michael Kestner/The Virginian-Pilot
Ginger Owen owns the Art Jones Travel Service in Suffolk.