James Cash Penney, 1876–1971

There are two important months in the history of the J. C. Penney stores, the first being April.

James Cash Penney, born in 1875, left his childhood home in Missouri when he was in his early twenties and moved to Colorado. He entered the dry goods business and, with partners, opened his first store, the Golden Rule Store, in Kemmerer, Wyoming, on April 14, 1902. Penney was successful for many reasons; chief among them was his work ethic. He placed his name on his chain of stores in 1913, and April 15, 1918, marked the opening of J.C. Penney’s first store in his home state.

In an article from the July 1927 Missouri Historical Review, C. P. Dorsey writes of Penney’s formula for success:

Mr. Penney’s plan was to create volume sales by a maximum of value coupled with painstaking attention to the needs of every customer; to render the greatest possible service rather than secure the greatest possible profit. These two fundamentals of the J. C. Penney Company have never been changed. Throughout all the corporation’s development, clerks have continued to be trained for managers and the principle of maximum service rather than maximum profit stands unaltered.

Although Penney would outlive two of his three wives, he would not outlive his corporation, which thrives to this day. J. C. Penney moved into the twenty-first century with more than eleven hundred stores throughout the United States; it is difficult to spot a mall or a major outlet center not anchored by one of Penney’s department stores.

And what is the other important month for the J. C. Penney Corporation? December—immediately after Christmas—brings Penney’s annual white sale.

Read more about James Cash Penney in this document, from the Missouri Historical Society.  

—Warren Perry, Catalog of American Portraits, National Portrait Gallery