Linda Graham Keeps Scheffel’s Toys Alive
Mike McClain
Sensational Seniors - July 2018
My Sensational Seniors feature for this issue of the Jacksonville Review, Linda Graham, just gets under the wire as a senior, but she had a compelling story to tell. A native Oregonian, her life began on April 7, 1956 at the old Sacred Heart Hospital in Medford. Her parents were Jim
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Jacksonville Review Online
Sensational Seniors – July 2018

My Sensational Seniors feature for this issue of the Jacksonville Review, Linda Graham, just gets under the wire as a senior, but she had a compelling story to tell. A native Oregonian, her life began on April 7, 1956 at the old Sacred Heart Hospital in Medford. Her parents were Jim and Judy Scheffel; her mother was the office manager for the Medford Rambler dealership while her father was a salesman for the then- popular Barkers Men’s Store in Medford. Linda transitioned through the Medford school system, including Hoover Elementary School, later Jacksonville Elementary, then to McLoughlin Junior High School and North Medford High School in 1974.

Linda’s grandfather was the Medford City Administrator for many years and, upon his retirement, he and her grandmother moved to Jacksonville to open Scheffel’s Antiques. They eventually ended up living and working out of the historic Love House on 3rd Street which had been built by Mary Hanley’s grandparents. Linda was chagrined when in 1966 her parents quit their jobs, purchased the Kris Keagan home on East D Street from the legendary, Robbie Collins, and settled into life in Jacksonville. Linda remembers that, “Jacksonville in 1966 was not a place that many desired to live, so I was embarrassed to have to tell my friends that we were moving to Jacksonville. The move however was the best thing that ever happened to me.” In 1968, her parents purchased the old Jacksonville Drug Store at the corner of Oregon and California and moved the antique business to that location in 1970. By 1986 they had become disenchanted with the antique business and brought in toys and gifts to see what “took.” Thus, “Scheffel’s Toys” was born.

After graduation from North Medford, Linda studied at Mt. Hood Community College to become a surgical technician and, with her Associates degree in hand, moved to Bend where she worked for two years at Saint Charles Medical Center. Deciding that she wanted to become a registered nurse, she transitioned in 1978 to Lane Community College in Eugene, but a growing disenchantment with the medical practice instead led her to enlist in the United States Coast Guard. During a visit to the Coast Guard recruiting office in Eugene, she met a young recruiter, Bill Graham, and, as she remembers, “He was one heck of a recruiter because I was fully vetted with an FBI background check before he asked me out for a date. I didn’t join the Coast Guard, but I came away with a husband with whom I will celebrate 39 years of marriage on September 1.” Shortly after getting married in 1979 in the Historic Jacksonville Presbyterian Church, Bill was transferred to Seattle, and in 1982 their son, Michael, was born.

During Linda’s brief time in Eugene she was introduced to the world of retail at a Eugene sporting goods store. Bill was transferred to Seattle in 1980 and a year after their son, Michael, was born she went back into the workforce, first as a bookkeeper and then in sales for various circuit board manufactures. Bill retired from the Coast Guard in 1989, and they started an offshoot of Scheffel’s Toys in Issaquah, WA.

Eventually, the Jacksonville toy store proved to be too much for Linda’s parents, so they asked Linda and Bill to come to Jacksonville and take over ownership of Scheffel’s Toys. Linda said this was an offer that they could not refuse, so they liquidated the Issaquah store, made multiple trips from Seattle to Jacksonville and in June, 1992 settled into the Love House where they would live for 18 years. When Linda’s parents passed in 2009, they moved to their current home in Pheasant Meadows.

Linda quickly took to the toy store life because, “While I had never taken a class in business, everything I had experienced in the retail and accounting world gave me the hands-on knowledge and ability to run a business.” It was hard to uproot their family and move to Jacksonville, but it proved beneficial for everyone. “It was the right move at the right time, and we’ve never looked back.” For most of the past 26 years, she and Bill have worked side-by-side in the store. Linda relates, “Bill and I have totally different personalities which is sometimes a plus and sometimes a negative, but we made it work. I couldn’t have asked for a better business or life partner.”

Until 2015, Scheffel’s Toys was a full-blown destination toy store with unique collectibles and a large section of the store devoted to model trains and accessories. Unfortunately, the model train business took a bad turn when the multiple makers of trains, tracks and accessories no longer were compatible, driven, according to Linda, by “pure greed.” The same “greed” issue came about with the popular lead soldiers that were imported from around the world; the result was Scheffel Toys dropped both the model train and lead solders from their inventory. These factors coupled with how the internet and Amazon have changed the retail market caused the Grahams in 2015 to close half of their store and to focus on items that still sell well such as stuffed animals, Playmobil, science sets and arts and crafts. Bill, being six years older than Linda, officially retired in 2015 and now Linda manages the store but with reduced hours and days. Linda is definite about her planned retirement which she announced will be on December 31, 2021. She says that ideally someone would want to purchase the toy store and inventory, but, if that does not happen, she will hold a liquidation sale and then turn to the internet to sell what is left.

Linda, who is not afraid to speak her mind about civic and political matters relating to her adopted city of Jacksonville, freely admits that she does not know everything but still she “is not going to give up on promoting a four-way stop on California and 5th Street.” With this same energy, Linda recently completed almost 20 years of serving on the Jacksonville Chamber of Commerce Board where she did a six-year stint chairing Victorian Christmas and has used her bookkeeping skills to serve several terms as the Chamber treasurer. Her motivation for this long-time involvement with the Chamber was simply “to give back to the community I love.” When reflecting on Jacksonville she relates, “I’ve watched Jacksonville grow from a rough-hewn town to a real diamond. It changed from a town where people did not want to live to one where now everyone wants to live. I think a lot of the reason for this positive change is that the businesses, city administration and the citizens came together to do what is good for our city. While we have our differences, we do more pulling together than pulling apart.”

As Linda looks ahead to retirement, she hopes to indulge even more in her favorite hobby which is travel and, in particular, expedition-style travel. She and Bill recently returned from a memorable trip to South America where, “swimming with sharks in the Galapagos was one of our major happy moments.” While not traveling, she will continue to enjoy her son and twin three-year-old grandsons who live locally, and she will be found most spring and summer mornings working in her backyard and taking her walk around Jacksonville.

If the mood strikes you, stop by Scheffel’s Toys and thank Linda Graham for her service to our city and get her opinion on the newest town issue. You will not be bored.