Page 44 - Senior Link Magazine Winter 2025 - Online Magazine

LOCAL LEGENDS
Dedicated,
Industrious,
Enduring
Jesse Soto
by Laura Soto
f you’ve ever set foot in a Hobby
Lobby mega craft store, you’ve
Iprobably seen Jesse Soto hard
at work. On any given weekday,
and often on Saturdays, you can
find him moving heavy shelves of
fragile picture frames and ceramics,
organizing a display of small
saddles and other niche home decor,
or carrying out a Christmas tree or
an 80-pound mirror to a customer’s
car. Soto, who’s been working his
entire adult life, has been a loyal
employee of the Lubbock Hobby
Lobby for over 25 years.
“I started working before I could
walk,” Jesse says with a chuckle.
Soto was born in Lockney, about
60 miles north of Lubbock—the
oldest of nine children. As a teen, he
44 Lubbock Senior Link
worked in fields chopping cotton,
cucumbers, onions, cabbage, and
beets with his family who migrated
all over Texas, Colorado, and
Kansas.
“We learned hard work at an early
age, and it helped me appreciate
every job afterwards that wasn’t
in the hot sun,” he says. “Air
conditioning is a luxury we didn’t
know back then.”
Jesse’s family lived mostly in
Lubbock where he attended Posey
Elementary, Alderson Middle
School, and finally Estacado High
School. Although he did well in
school as a member of both the
National Honor Society and the
Estacado band (saxophone section),
and was also an award-winning art
student, he needed to work to help
his family and eventually start his
own life.
“School was a challenge in my teen
years,” says Soto, who says he was
once punished with a paddle for
speaking Spanish at school. “It was
just a different time,” he adds.
Jesse has worked in all types of
industries—including restaurants,
appliance repair, carpentry, and
retail. He’s even outlived several
of his former employers including
Sears, and restaurants Casa Ole and
Home Plate Diner. But he’s found his
final home at Hobby Lobby, having
celebrated his 25th anniversary in
March 2025.
“(Jesse’s) dedication to the store is
a testament to the fact that when
you take care of your employees, in
return they take care of you,” says
Hobby Lobby General Manager
Brian Cox. “Jesse has had a major
impact in the continued success of
this store. We are blessed to have
him working here.”
The Lubbock Hobby Lobby has
been the #1 store in the nation for
the chain most of the last decade,
out of the over 1,000 stores located
in the lower 48 states. Recently, a
new Hobby Lobby store opened
in Manhattan and, when Jesse was
given the opportunity to help it
open, he reluctantly declined. “Nah,
that’s too far—and too expensive
because the family would show up
for vacation!”