ABOVE: Jeanne Doolittle and Ryan and Sarah Unke. The Unkes will be taking over the decades-old family business, Dolittle’s Carpet and Paints, in the coming weeks.

FAIRMONT– Doolittle’s Carpet and Paints in Fairmont will soon transfer ownership to Ryan and Sarah Unke, long-time family friends of the Doolittle’s. The change comes following the sudden passing of former owner, Jack Doolittle, in March of this year.

The business actually started out in 1960 as Doolittle Decorating by Earl and Shirley and was located in Winnebago. In 1974, the business and the family, which included five children, moved to Fairmont. It was first on Downtown Plaza and then moved to 418 North State Street.

Growing up the three Dolittle boys– Jeff, Tim and Jack– became friends with the Unke boys, Scott and Kurt. As the kids became closer, so did their parents.

“It started with Jack’s parents and my grandparents being really close friends and then my parents and Jack and Jeanne real close friends,” Ryan Unke said.

In 1996, Jack and Jeanne Doolittle took over the family business and the following year they purchased Freitag Floors at 1225 Highway 15 South in Fairmont, which is where the business is based to this day.

While the Doolittles were growing their business, they were also growing their relationship with Kurt and DeGee Unke. As they each had children, their kids grew close, too.

“Ryan and our daughter Jessica were basically raised as siblings and to this day remain friends,” Jeanne said.

Throughout the years Ryan began to help Jack out with the business and he learned a lot of the ins and outs of it.

“This is a stepping stone that we had discussed with Ryan, hoping that Jack would be here to help mentor him through,” Jeanne said.

Ryan said the conversation never got too serious but that it had been picking up in recent years. Most recently Ryan was working at Biosecure Air, a commercial ag construction company, where he managed projects.

When Jack got sick in February, salespeople Ben Chukuske and Krista Lyons, along with experienced installers, were able to keep the business up and running.

“We’re fortunate to have experienced, well-trained employees who did what they had to do to keep things going. Jack would be so proud of all of them,” Jeanne said.

While the change in ownership was made sooner than any of them had expected or hoped it would be, it’s one that all parties involved feel good about.

“Jack would just be so happy and proud that this is how it’s turning out,” Jeanne said.

“It’s been a well-established business in the area for decades,” Unke said. “We’ll continue to operate under the name Doolittle’s.”

Ryan has no plans to change anything about the business immediately. He said, “Jack had this thing fine-tuned and running really well so as of now we’re just going to keep it going.”

“I keep telling him to do what Jack did. Jack was good on customer service. He would tell his installers to put it down like they would in their own home. I would check on jobs when they were done to make sure people were happy with it,” Jeanne said.

Both Ryan and Jeanne agreed that she will continue to have a presence in the business.

“We wanted to keep the business locally owned,” Jeanne said.

“People are familiar with it; they know it,” Unke said.