by Patti Connor
Staff Writer
As a child, Tony Knox took a shine to the job that eventually would become his career. At age 10, Knox, who was born and raised in Tallahassee, followed the footsteps of his older brothers into the shoeshine business. For the next eight years Knox would go about polishing and perfecting his skills, painstakingly buffing the footwear of any and everyone he could get his hands on.
The brothers were apprenticing for an old man with a shoeshine stand on what people at that time referred to as “Colored Street.”
“I can still remember those Friday nights,” recalled Knox at his stand at the Jacksonville International Airport. “Everybody would go get a haircut, then get all dressed up and go to the pool hall.”
Upon graduating from high school, he left the shoeshine business altogether, going on to work as a bellman as well as in restaurant and retail management. It was only after he and his wife Vivian began their rapidly expanding family (ranging in age from four to 26, the kids now total eight), when a friend made the offhand remark that perhaps he should consider starting his own shoeshine parlor, that Knox decided maybe there WAS something to this business of starting his own business.
Armed with little more than five dollars, a genuine fondness for people and the knowledge he’d accumulated during his stint in the shoeshine business those many years ago, Knox got a license and went about seeing if he could make a go of it on his own.
It wasn’t long before it became apparent that he could.
He now boasts the distinction of having buffed and shined the footwear of everyone from Florida’s most humble farmer to the state’s highest-ranking political dignitary.
“First, it was Governor (Bob) Martinez, then (Lawton) Chiles, then (Jeb) Bush... there’s no question that this business allows me to go places nobody else is able to go,” he said. Nor can anyone accuse him of taking that privilege lightly. “In my job, what you hear on the job, you leave on the job.”
He approaches his work with equal seriousness. “In some jobs, people give 100-150 percent. In my job, I give 250 percent — so, I’m one of the best.”
In April he moved his family near Jacksonville to open his stand at the airport.
“They put the contract up for bid, I put in my proposal, and was accepted,” he said. He’s assisted by his children, five of whom he’s taught to shine shoes, as well as by several nephews. “I’ve taught five of my kids how to shine shoes. (And) Miss Vivian will also shine shoes, when necessary. She knows all the business, and all my clients. She’s my chief financial officer.”
One thing he doesn’t joke about is education.
“When I had so many children, my daddy told me I needed to do two things: I needed to love them, and I needed to feed them,” he said.
To keep up with what’s going on in the youngsters’ day-to-day life, he maintains an active involvement in each of their schools.
“I know (everybody). Know the students, know the cooks, know (the people in) maintenance. From the start, I made one thing clear: School is for learning — not playing,” said Knox, who actually home schooled several of his kids. If that’s the case, they learned their lessons well. Of the three now attending college, one maintains a 3.8 GPA; the other hold steady at 3.5.
“In my house,” says Knox, “We have a rule. That rule is: God, first; spouse, second; children, third; job, fourth; and church, fifth. If you follow those principles, then your life (is) well balanced.”