One of Albany’s most recognizable business leaders and the operator of one of the community’s longest running family businesses passed away last week after a brief illness.

William J. “Bill” Shearer, 92, owned and operated a courthouse square fixture, Clinton Jewelers, for some 70 years.

Sitting behind his multi-drawer jeweler’s bench, since opening Clinton Jewelers in 1950, Shearer greeted his customers as they entered his store on the north side of the courthouse square, looking up through his glasses that were equipped with a multi-lens magnifying loupe.

Working on a failing watch, installing a new band, tightening jewels back into their setting, gold-stamping someone’s name onto the corner leather cover of a gift Bible or selling a young man that important diamond ring that would hopefully be accepted by a bride to be’s answer of “yes, I will”, Bill Shearer was one of the most recognizable business leaders in Albany for seven decades.

He continued to work at that same jeweler’s bench position until just a few weeks ago when he became ill, working alongside family members including daughter and son-in-law David and Donna Jean Butler.

His daughter, Donna, told the Clinton County News this week that her father rarely missed work since opening the business in 1950 and was working five and a half days a week, nine hours a day until he became ill in late November.

“We want people to know that we are going to keep the store in operation,” Donna Butler said Monday afternoon. “David has been working there for 33 years and he and I are going to continue to run it.”

During the recent months, the store had undergone a major renovation, inside and out, giving the outer appearance a new, modern look that was highly noticeable to customers who entered the building, and something that Shearer had been proud to see happen.

“My dad was so excited about the recent renovations and knowing that the business would go on,” she noted.

Shearer’s background in the retail business began as he grew up in neighboring Wayne County. His parents had a family farm but also ran a general store in the Hidalgo community.

Leaving high school at age 17 to enlist in the Navy during World War II, Shearer is one of the “Hometown Heroes” whose military portrait and Navy designation hangs among the banners displayed at times from Albany utility poles.

After WWII, he attended Bradley University in Peoria, Illinois to become a jeweler and Master Watchmaker, working briefly in Oak Ridge and Knoxville, Tennessee, where he met his wife, the late Barbara Jean Arnwine Shearer. They moved to Albany in 1949 and soon afterwards, opened Clinton Jewelers.

The jewelry store remains in its original location where Shearer opened it in 1950.

In addition to his decades of business ownership in Albany, he also spent several decades as the Clinton County board representative with South Kentucky RECC.

For 36 years, Shearer served on that board as a director and during that tenure he also served in several office capacities on the board, including that of board chairman. Shearer retired from the SKRECC board in 2012.

A complete death notice appears this week on page 4.