How did you find your calling?

“It has been part of my family for four generations. My great-grandfather started making brooms in 1931 during the Great Depression. I started doing it as a hobby. I really wanted to honor that tradition. I thought, ‘I’m going to focus more on making it a functional piece of art as much as a broom.’ It is very relaxing to me. Even the most rudimentary jobs that you have to perform, if the tools are aesthetically pleasing, that can make that job or task a lot easier and more fun. I love selling them, but I’d make brooms if I didn’t sell a one. I love it that much. When I was diagnosed with my cancer, I was told I’d have to quit making brooms for a while. I thought, ‘If I could ever get back to making brooms, I know I’m going to be alright.’ I finished treatment and I had to wait six weeks before I could touch this stuff. Six weeks to the day, I made my first broom. The treatment had beat me up bad, but at that point, I’m like, ‘I’m going to be alright.’” – George Jones Jr. of Florence.

Jones makes around 2,000 brooms a year. See more of his work at georgesbroomcloset.com.

Alabama News Center profiled Jones as an Alabama Maker in 2017. You can read that story and watch the video here.

George Jones Jr. credits broom making with saving his life. (Tamika Moore / People of Alabama)

One person he’d love to have own one of his brooms?

“Daniel Radcliffe, AKA Harry Potter himself.”

These are the faces and stories of people from all walks of life who call Alabama home. People of Alabama is a Red Clay Media and Alabama News Center partnership.