Pine boxes earn spot on TV
By Sam Waller
Albany has drawn the attention of the syndicated television program Texas Country Reporter.
Hosts Bob and Kelli Phillips were recently in town for a segment on Jim Nobles, who handcrafts wooden caskets under the Noblex Pine Boxes banner.
Nobles said the segment will air some time this fall.
Texas Country Reporter airs on KTXS (Channel 12) at 6:30 p.m. Saturdays. The show previously featured Albany’s restored Sinclair station in 2015.
Nobles, an Albany native who returned to his hometown after 40 years away, took a roundabout path to where he is now. After graduating from Albany High School in 1960, he embarked on a career that included running a cash register dealership in Rochester, N.Y. He returned to Albany in 2001.
“I am happy to be in Albany,” he said. “It’s a great town.”
Nobles said casket making was an outgrowth of his lifelong involvement with woodworking.
“I’ve been a woodworker all my life, just not a very good one,” he said. “I won’t say practice makes perfect, but it helps you approach perfect.”
Nobles said he became interested in casket making after seeing a Texas Country Reporter segment about Cowboys Last Ride, a Brownwood company that makes caskets with a western theme, but it was another experience that convinced him to take the plunge almost 20 years ago.
“I had worked on Sonny Edgar’s house, and his wife bought a casket out of Lubbock when he died,” Nobles said. “There was no lining and the handles were held on with bolts that stuck out an inch inside the casket. I figured I could do better than that, and I talked to Morehart Mortuary about taking one on consignment, but Alma Godfrey bought it. That’s what got me started.”
Nobles said the endeavor is more a profitable hobby than a vocation, but he does work ahead because of the need for inventory.
“When I get a phone call from a funeral home, my answer has to be ‘yes, I have a casket,’ and ‘yes, I can put a blue quilt in it,’ and ‘yes, I can deliver it this afternoon or in the morning,’” he said. “If any of those answers are no, I don’t get the deal. I only sell to funeral homes.”
While caskets are his top priority, Nobles continues to engage in a handful of other woodworking projects.
“I helped build the cabinets for the 10 houses that Ben Richey built last year, but I worked with a preacher, and we did that over about 18 months,” he said. “I’ve built cabinets for First Christian Church and Trinity Episcopal, and I helped with the addition to United Pentecostal. One of my first jobs was the bookshelves for the library renovation a few years ago.”
Other projects have included kitchen cabinets and office furniture.
“The caskets don’t keep me busy, but other stuff comes along,” Nobles said. “I’m building a gun cabinet right now.”
