Vashti’s Jewelry and Gift Shoppe in Edgehill Shopping Center, Gloucester, celebrated its 52nd anniversary last month, and owner Joan Roane has been a part of it from the beginning.

Roane was just a teenager when her mother, Vashti Horsley Wilcher, purchased the former H.B. Heath Jewelers, where Wilcher had been employed. The business was originally located on Gloucester’s Main Street in a building now incorporated into the Gazette-Journal offices. But when a spot became available in the shopping center, where there were a lot of other family businesses, the jewelry store moved.

Although Wilcher was the owner, Roane did her fair share of work, too, helping out with sales and bookkeeping and serving as purchaser for the store’s gift lines.

In those days, the store had a lot of china, crystal and silver, said Roane. Brides shopped there for their fine household goods, while prospective grooms were likely to purchase engagement and wedding rings there.

Today, sa...