Katherine Bagwell carries on her family's legacy
When you drive down Main Street, it is almost impossible to miss the West Point TV & Appliance building. This business has been a West Point institution since 1954, and its owner, Katherine “Kay” Turner Bagwell is no different.
“We are so blessed to have a town like this town. I know sometimes bad things happen, but we have a town where people smile at you and talk to you,” said Bagwell. “To me, that's just a wonderful place to be. We have wonderful churches… I think we are blessed to have West Point.”
Bagwell was born and raised in West Point and has lived in the city for most of her life. Bagwell intended to be a school teacher and attended Mississippi State for this purpose. However, Bagwell started out teaching high school students, which did not appeal to her in the long term.
“I love children. Little children,” said Bagwell. “I tried the big ones, when I first started teaching. I went to Aberdeen and I taught English… I was 21, and those kids were 18 and 19. And I said, ‘Lord, if you let me live through this year, I'll go back to school and get a degree in something with little children.' So I did.”
After her first year of teaching, Bagwell went back to school at the Mississippi University for Women, where she received her master's degree in Early Childhood education. After receiving this degree, Bagwell moved to Columbus for 7 years and then to Wesson for 7 years. In each city, Bagwell worked teaching younger students. However, in 1980, Bagwell returned to West Point and started working with her parents at West Point TV & Appliance Co.
“They started the business out of the back of a pickup truck, and they used to go around with TVs. They would sell TVs door to door, and then they'd have to put up an antenna,” said Bagwell. “And they said they never had to take one back down. People kept them. This was way back in 1954.”
By 1980, Bagwell's parents moved their business into its current location on Main Street. Bagwell began helping her parents with their company. She continued to take on more responsibility for the company over time and eventually took on the responsibility as the owner of West Point TV & Appliance when her parents passed away.
“Did you see on the front of the building, it still says established 1954 by Claude Magnus Turner?” asked Bagwell.
hile working there, she met James Bagwell, the technician for West Point TV & Appliance who would eventually become her husband. By 1996, Katherine and James were married. They worked together until 2021 when James passed away. Bagwell still owns the business and can be found behind the desk almost every day of the week.
When she is not working, Bagwell spends her time planning Sunday school lessons for her classes at First Baptist Church. Bagwell has been teaching Sunday school classes there since 1980. She
has a separate desk in the store that is dedicated to her teaching materials and planning her lessons for upcoming Sundays.
“I started out there teaching the older kids and then when a younger class came open I moved to that,” said Bagwell. “I've been doing that a long time, apparently… I've told everybody who would listen to me that if something happens to me, the church needs to come get my stuff. I've got it all in books over here, all of my Sunday school stuff. I've got every lesson. Old Testament and New Testament. I work on my Sunday school lessons back and forth between talking to people here.”
Bagwell also loves spending time with her family, including her grandkids. She also likes caring for her cats, Oreo and Zeebie. Both cats can be found at the West Point TV & Appliance Co. building, though they often run and hide when customers come in.
“He's named Zeebie because the grandkids said he looked like a zebra, even though he has no white on him. I was calling him Felix at the time,” Bagwell said. “And then my other cat, I was calling him Cookie, and my grandkids said no, that his name should be Oreo. And you do what your grandkids tell you to do.”
If you see Bagwell around town, be sure to say hello.