By Kristine Anderson

The Brumby Chair Co. of Marietta just keeps on rockin' along. Last month, Spain Brumby Gregory, great-granddaughter of the founder of the company, took over as manager of the business that started in 1875. Spain, 27, is the fourth generation of her family involved in Georgia's oldest chair company, now located on the Marietta Square, less than a mile away from the original factory. She started helping out in November on a temporary basis, and had decided to remain with the family-owned and operated business.

Spain Gregory, Jumbo rockers, Otis Brumby

In a showroom lined with photographs of former company presidents and other relatives, she says, "I'm still learning and will keep on learning, but it's great to be part of the family business."

Spain is the oldest child of newspaper publisher Otis Brumby, who owns the Marietta Daily Journal and 28 neighborhood papers as well as the chair company. She has a degree in journalism from Washington and Lee and worked at the Marietta Daily Journal for two years after her graduation. She also worked in Johnny Isakson's senatorial campaign in 1996, and her husband Scott, is a lawyer in the firm with State House Rep. Roy Barnes, a Democratic gubernatorial candidate.

"My grandfather would be happy to know that Brumby Chair Company is still in the family and in the hands of someone who cares about the product and what it means to the community," says Otis Brumby.

At one time the company made 150 different pieces of furniture and was one of Marietta's largest employers with a work force of 350. But after a labor shortage forced the factory to close in 1944, Brumby Chair was sold to an Ohio firm.

Otis Brumby obtained rights to the trademark and, at the urging of former Marietta Mayor Joe Mack Wilson and several local preservationists, he moved the company back to Marietta in 1992.

The company now makes and sells around 400 handcrafted rockers a year, but the Jumbo rocker is its signature piece. A Jumbo costs about $719, depending on the finish. Brumby also offers three smaller sized rockers.

All the oak components for the rockers are made at an old spoke factory in Sparta, Tenn., using a special Brumby lathe. Four local caners weave the seats and back rests.

Betty Holbrook, a longtime employee, assembles and hand-finishes the chairs in Marietta in a workroom filled with a photo gallery of famous rockers, including Billy Payne, former Sen. Sam Nunn, Gov. Zell Miller and former President Jimmy Carter, who put five chairs on the Truman Balcony at the White House.

The chair company had more than $300,000 in annual sales in 1997, and half the sales were outside of Georgia. In fact, since 1992, the company has shipped chairs to 46 states, including Alaska, as well as to the United Kingdom. Spain Gregory and her father plan to do more national marketing in the next few years.