Hometown Rankin - February & March 2016

tournaments,” said Russ. “We go to Las Vegas
once, Pennsylvania once, and Louisiana twice.
We just got back from Hawaii. If I go to Japan,
there may be a world championship. We have a
display and sell them at the tournaments. There
will be 10,000 pool players there. We’re at each
tournament for two weeks. People fly in to shows
from all over the world to buy these cues. They’re
collectors, so when your name gets with these
people, you can do pretty much anything.”
When Russ travels, he also buys exotic woods
and skins. “We get woods from all around the
world–South America, Australia, Hawaii. The
ebony comes out of Africa. We get wood from
a lot of Asian countries,” said Russ. “Most of the
wood is brought in from an importer. It’s usually a
musical instrument supplier. They dry it. I see them
at a show and tell them what I want and they
send it. We’re pretty picky about the types of
woods because that’s what makes a pool cue.”
Russ and Carolyn’s 17-year-old grandson
works part time in the shop running the inlay
machines, programming the computers, and
putting the designs into the cues. “I told him he
could have the shop when he’s ready,” said Russ.
Other than his grandson and one other part
time worker, Russ prefers to do the crafting
himself. “I have thought about expanding, but
everybody wants me to work on the cues. But
I’m getting my grandson into this a little. He
can do the programming on the computer for
sure. He’s smart. It’s not as easy as you think.”
“If you have a lot of people working for
you, they do more work for sure. But if you
don’t watch what they’re doing, they might not
be doing it right. It’s just a job to them. If they
don’t put it together right or don’t put enough
glue on something, it falls apart. The quality
goes down. So we just do it ourselves,” added
Russ.
“We work seven days a week out here.
We never get caught up. We could work
24-hours a day, and I don’t think we’ll ever get
caught up. We’ve built this up, and we can’t
disappoint people. I have clients who would
buy all these cues right now if I had them
ready. Our clients count on us,” said Russ.
As he pulled a cue from a case, Russ said,
“This is one of the cues that the Rolling
Stones played with. I made some pool
cues when the Rolling Stones came to
Memphis. I sent them up there so they
could play with them. The deal was they
would sign my cues and send them back,
but they came back unsigned. Minnesota
Fats was a friend of mine, too. We know
everybody.”
Russ and Carolyn’s roots are set
deeply in Rankin County. “If we made
pool cues in Washington, D.C., for
example, we’d be selling really high
dollar stuff all the time. But Puckett is
our home.”
From craftsman to mayor to high
school golf coach, Russ strives for high
quality in each of his roles. “Our pool
cues are like art; they play well and
last forever.” n
Hometown Rankin • 69