Another longtime Greeneville business will leave the downtown area -- and the local business community -- in a few weeks when 62-year-old Duggins TV Center closes its doors for the final time at the end of this month.

A few blocks away, Lancaster's Jewelers, which was founded in 1901, closed at the end of 2007 after 106 years as a Main Street landmark business.

John W. Duggins Jr., the 60-year-old owner-operator of the familiar Greeneville electronics store his late father and uncle established in 1946, said in an interview this week that he will be undergoing heart surgery in May.

With that prospect ahead, he said, he has decided it is time for him to close up shop.

The business, originally specializing in radio repair, was opened here by Duggins' late father, John W. Duggins, in 1946 after he returned home following World War II.

He had served in what was then called the Army Air Corps, doing electronics work on U.S. B-29 bombers based in Guam including the Enola Gay, the aircraft which dropped the atomic bomb at Hiroshima near the end of World War II.

With his electronics knowledge, Duggins Sr. and one of his brothers, Allan Duggins, started the new business, then called Duggins Brothers Radio, at the corner of Church and Loretta streets.

Duggins Jr. recalled in an interview this week that his uncle moved on to another type of business within a few years, but that his father continued in the electronics field.

Over the years Duggins Sr. built a strong business, with many loyal customers.

Sam Doak, a long-time customer, said he found both Duggins Sr. and his son to be "very reliable and approachable" whenever there were questions about TVs or electronics equipment.

The Rev. Don Alexander, another long-time customer, recalled his p arents bought the family's first TV from Duggins and said he has been a customer of the store for decades.

"Whatever Mr. Duggins or his people would tell you, they would do it," he said.

Duggins Sr. pioneered locally in the field of television, and brought both the first television set and the first color television set to the Greeneville market.

He had Duggins TV Center's present building constructed in 1958 at 204 E. McKee St.

John Duggins Jr. said he began working with his father there in about 1980.

John Duggins Sr. died in 2003 at age 80. His wife, Hertha Duggins, John Duggins Jr.'s mother, who had also taken an active role in the business for more than 50 years, died in January at age 83.

Duggins TV Center is among those businesses today that have become much more rare -- small, family-owned establishments highly regarded for the quality of their service.

Noting this, Duggins said in an interview this week, "We're probably one of the last ones anywhere."

Looking back on his decades of working at the store, he smilingly recalled of his father, "He did the selling, but mostly he told stories. Nobody could buy a TV until having heard the whole history of the electronics industry."

John Duggins Sr. was renowned locally not only for his knowledge of electronics but also for his excellent memory, his insightful observation of human nature and daily life, his ear for interesting expressions by customers and others, and his storytelling ability both orally and in writing.

A number of the stories were published over the years, in The Greeneville Sun, as well as in The Knoxville News-Sentinel and other newspapers and magazines.

Many of his stories and memories of colorful expressions used by his customers were compiled into a book, Homestead Heritage, published in 2003.

Duggins Jr. said that, when the family's TV Center opened, it repaired many TV sets.

But over the years since then, he explained, making repairs became less and less important because television sets increasingly were being built better, and when one broke down, people were likely to buy a new set rather than have the old one repaired.

Duggins TV Center also sells VCRs, stereos, satellite TVs, over-air antenna, and DVDs.

But Duggins said that in recent years he noticed a decline in customer satisfaction with RCA televisions and the replacement parts available for them, so he now is more likely to recommend Toshiba products.

He noted that, decades ago, when television consoles more often were considered impressive pieces of living-room furniture, wives more often were involved in deciding which big television consoles they wanted in their homes.

Now, Duggins said, in an era when TVs have more functional designs, husbands tend to choose the family's new set.

He recalled that the best periods for selling TVs here used to be during the Christmas season and in early November when local tobacco farmers, having sold their year's crop of burley, "would come in with wads of $100 bills [to buy a new television set], almost begging you to take them."

Now, however, Duggins said, it is harder to predict the ebb and flow of sales. He said March normally is a very slow sales month, yet Duggins TV Center this March had its best sales month in two years.

The store will continue to sell TVs and its other products until the end of April, offering discounts to everyone, although it has twice sold through its limited inventory, and now has to order most items.

Duggins said he hopes to sell the building once its 50 years as a place to buy a TV set, or to have one repaired, have come to an end.