Founded by Grady “Big Red” and Gracie Swindle in Dublin, Texas, Swindle’s Jewelry has served customers since 1942. Although Grady, who had severe arthritis and used a wheelchair, and Gracie, who contracted polio at age three, lived with disabilities, neither allowed those challenges to define them.

Before they met, the Texas State Board of Vocational Education sent both to a nine-month watchmaking course at Hardin Junior College in Wichita Falls around 1941. The pair met shortly before graduating and later married. During World War II, Grady and Gracie opened their own watchmaking school in the back of their full-service jewelry store in Dublin, providing disabled veterans returning home from war an opportunity to learn a trade and build a livelihood.

Over the years, the family operated locations in Dublin, Comanche, Stephenville, and Eastland. In the 1950s, Ripley’s Believe It or Not! featured Swindle’s Jewelry in one of its newspaper cartoons because of the irony of a jewelry store bearing the name “Swindle.” Eventually, the business consolidated its operations in Stephenville.

In the 1980s, Swindle’s Jewelry became widely known for originating the coin class rings designed by Pinkie Swindle for Tarleton State University. The rings quickly became the company’s signature product and remain closely associated with the university community.

Today, more than 80 years after its founding, this third-generation family-owned business continues to serve students, dairymen, educators, public officials, and families across the region. Above all, Swindle’s Jewelry remains known for the lasting relationships it has built within the community, demonstrating how a local business can become part of a town’s shared story.