A High School Teacher Told Him to Try Watchmaking. 70 Years Later, 14 Family Members Run the Business.
Your daughter just received her First Communion. After Mass, still in her white dress, she runs to Grandma in the parish hall, and Grandma clasps a thin gold chain around her neck, a Miraculous Medal, the same one Grandma wore at her own First Communion fifty years ago, freshly polished and resized by the same family of jewelers who first sold it. That is not a transaction. That is a sacramental heirloom passing between generations, cared for by people who understand exactly what it means.
Foshee Jewelers in Lakeland, Florida is that kind of jeweler. Founded in 1953, still run by the same family, now 14 members across three generations, Foshee is a GIA-certified, on-site workshop where Catholic families in Central Florida have brought their most meaningful pieces for over seven decades. From engagement rings blessed before a nuptial Mass to patron saint medals for Confirmation, they handle objects that carry spiritual weight with the reverence those objects deserve.
How Did a Catholic Family Jeweler Last 70 Years in the Age of Chain Stores?
The Foshee story starts with a pivotal moment of vocation, a teacher recognizing a gift in a young man and steering him toward it.
In the late 1940s, a teacher at Lakeland High School noticed something in Clyde Foshee and suggested he try watchmaking. Clyde had been working Florida's orange groves, honest labor, but not his calling. He enrolled in horology school in Jacksonville and discovered his vocation. Not vocation in the casual sense. Vocation in the Catholic sense: the work God made him for, the place where his deep gladness met the world's need.
In 1953, Clyde opened his first store on Memorial Boulevard in Lakeland. He stayed twenty-two years, building trust one repair at a time. In 1975, he moved to Ingraham Plaza, where the family served customers for thirty-five more years. In 2010, Foshee Jewelers settled into its current home on East Parker Street, modern facilities, same family values. Three addresses. One unbroken line of craftsmanship.
That 70-year run places Foshee among a rare breed. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, only about 25% of new businesses survive to their 15th year. Foshee has nearly quintupled that milestone, and done it as an independent, family-operated shop competing against national chains with billion-dollar ad budgets.
What Does It Mean to Have 14 Family Members in One Business?
Today, 14 family members work together at Foshee Jewelers. Clyde's daughter Pam Cothern handles repair and custom work. His sister Barbara Hunt is part of the daily operation. Son Chris Foshee carries the family legacy forward. Daughter-in-law Duska Foshee is an expert jeweler in her own right. More family members fill roles across sales, service, and administration.
Catholics recognize something in that structure. The family, domestic church, as the Second Vatican Council called it, operating as a single body, each member contributing distinct gifts toward a common purpose. It echoes St. Paul's letter to the Corinthians: "There are different kinds of gifts, but the same Spirit distributes them." The Foshees have built a business that mirrors the Catholic understanding of family: unified in mission, diverse in function, rooted in a shared inheritance.
This is not a business that happens to employ relatives. It is a family whose daily life together is expressed through their craft. When you walk into Foshee Jewelers, you enter a family's workshop, and they have been refining their trade since the year Eisenhower took office.
Are Foshee Jewelers GIA Certified?
Yes, and that matters more than most customers realize. Here is what their credentials mean in practice:
| Credential | What It Means for You | |-----------|----------------------| | GIA Certified Professionals | Staff trained by the Gemological Institute of America, the world's foremost authority on diamonds and gemstones. They can accurately grade, appraise, and authenticate precious stones. | | All work done on-site | No mailing your grandmother's rosary ring to an anonymous repair center. Every repair, custom design, and appraisal happens in the family's own workshop, under their direct supervision. | | Expert watch repair | The original craft that started everything. Over 70 years of accumulated horology skill passed through the family. | | Custom jewelry design | One-of-a-kind pieces, engagement rings, religious medals, family heirlooms, created by the same hands that serve you at the counter. |
For Catholic families, the on-site commitment carries particular significance. The objects we bring to a jeweler are often sacramentals, a grandmother's Miraculous Medal, a father's St. Joseph medal worn thin from decades of daily prayer, a rosary that has been through more novenas than you can count. These are not just valuable. They are sacred. Handing them to a family that has safeguarded thousands of such pieces over seven decades feels different from dropping them at a mall kiosk staffed by someone hired last Tuesday.
What Kind of Jewelry Does a Catholic Family Need?
The Catholic liturgical calendar creates a rhythm of gift-giving moments that secular jewelers rarely anticipate. Foshee Jewelers has spent 70 years serving Central Florida's Catholic community through every one of them:
- Baptism: A small cross or medal, often the first piece of jewelry a child will own, kept for a lifetime and sometimes passed to their own children
- First Communion: Miraculous Medals, cross pendants, charm bracelets with Eucharistic symbols, gifts that mark the day a child first receives the Body of Christ
- Confirmation: Patron saint medals chosen to match the saint name selected by the confirmand, a deeply personal tradition
- Engagement and Marriage: Rings that will be blessed during the nuptial Mass, Claddagh rings for Irish Catholic families, bands engraved with wedding dates that will be celebrated for golden anniversaries
- Ordination and Religious Life: Pectoral crosses, religious profession rings, pieces with profound vocational meaning
- Memorial: Jewelry incorporating the birthstone or initial of a deceased loved one, worn as a reminder to pray for the repose of their soul
A jeweler who understands these occasions does not need to be told why a customer is crying when she brings in her late mother's wedding ring for resizing. The Foshees have been in that moment thousands of times. They know the weight of what they hold.
If you are searching for Catholic gifts and religious goods for a sacramental occasion, a family jeweler with seven decades of experience serving Catholic customers is worth the drive.
Why Does Lakeland Trust Foshee Jewelers?
The Lakeland Chamber of Commerce named Foshee Jewelers Small Business of the Month in April 2023, a recognition that capped their 70th anniversary year. That is not an award won with a marketing campaign. It is an award earned by showing up to the same community, under the same family name, for seven consecutive decades.
Lakeland sits in Polk County, part of the Diocese of Orlando, which serves over 600,000 Catholics across nine counties in Central Florida. The Catholic community here is substantial and growing. Families who have attended Mass at St. Joseph Catholic Church or Resurrection Catholic Church for generations have been buying engagement rings, having watches repaired, and commissioning custom pieces at Foshee for just as long. The jeweler and the parish families have grown old together.
That kind of trust is not manufactured. It is what makes a business genuinely Catholic, not a label, but a lived relationship between a family of craftspeople and the community they serve, deepened by decades of showing up for the moments that matter most.
Can You Find a Catholic Jeweler Near You?
Foshee Jewelers serves Central Florida from its Lakeland location, but Catholic families everywhere face the same question: where do you find a jeweler who understands that a saint medal is not costume jewelry, that an engagement ring will be blessed at an altar, that a repair is sometimes an act of love for someone who has already died?
The Discover Catholic Business directory lists over 46,000 Catholic-owned businesses across the country, including jewelers, gift shops, and religious goods suppliers. If you are in Florida, Foshee is the standard. If you are elsewhere, the directory can help you find a Catholic jeweler in your own community who brings that same understanding to the work.
For business owners in the Catholic gifts and religious goods space, whether you are a jeweler, a rosary maker, a liturgical art supplier, or a religious bookstore, listing in the directory is free and puts your business in front of the Catholic families who are actively searching for exactly what you offer. A family like the Foshees built their reputation over 70 years of word-of-mouth in one Florida city. The directory extends that reach to Catholics nationwide, from day one.
Foshee Jewelers
- Website: fosheejewelers.com
- Address: 943 E Parker St, Lakeland, FL 33801
- Category: Gifts & Religious Goods
- Serving: Central Florida since 1953
Find Foshee Jewelers on Discover Catholic Business
Sources: Foshee Jewelers, Southern Jewelry News, Lakeland Chamber of Commerce, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Business Survival Rates, Discover Catholic Business
Social Repurposing Notes:
Caption: A high school teacher told Clyde Foshee to try watchmaking. 70 years later, 14 family members run the jewelry store he built in Lakeland, FL. They have resized Miraculous Medals for First Communions, crafted rings blessed at nuptial Masses, and repaired patron saint medals worn thin from decades of prayer. This is what a Catholic family jeweler looks like. Find them in our directory.