Legacy Through Generations with The Jolliffs

With three generations of community business entrepreneurs, the Jolliff family is one of Centralia’s most enduring and storied legacies.

The story began with Jerry Jolliff and his wife Marilyn, maiden name Flanigan, who opened Jerry’s grocery store in Wamac and later the landmark restaurant, Jerry’s Bigger Jigger, now Jerry’s Grill & Bar.

Beginning their professional careers at the family restaurant, Barri Allen, Sonya Gettinger, and Brock Jolliff have carried on their parent’s entrepreneurial spirit. Brock took over as owner of Jerry’s Grill & Bar in 2020, while Sonya opened the highly successful Hollywood Hair Salon in 2013 with Barri serving as CFO at Hollywood Hair.

“I love this community,” said Barri, who also serves on the Centralia city council. “Every single person in this community that I know has supported me and my family, and I show that loyalty back to them. I always do everything that I can to make sure that this community survives and is thriving.”

Sonya followed, saying it was the support of the Centralia community that helped her grow Hollywood Hair into a three-location enterprise, with additional locations in Shiloh and Edwardsville.

“Very few people ever get their salons to a million dollars, especially in a small town. Most of them are in bigger cities,” Sonya explained, noting that Hollywood Hair became a million-dollar salon in 2016. “We have been very fortunate, and we have also seen growth. And I think that goes back to the people.”

As the youngest of Jerry and Marilyn’s children and the owner of their historic business, Brock said he has always embraced the legacy of his family and has managed to bring the restaurant to even greater heights, despite having taken the reigns during the pandemic.

“We’ve really had growth since 2020 and remarkably so,” Brock said, adding that in addition to the many visitors the restaurant draws in, the community continues to show up to support his family’s beloved restaurant. “There are literally generations of families that come here, to the point where I’m seeing the grandkids of some of our customers. And I think that’s awesome.”

A third generation of Jolliff’s have begun making their mark on the community, as Sonya’s daughters, Abbey and Macey, opened Advanced Surgical Technologies, a clinic offering advanced laparoscopy, endoscopy, general surgery, vascular surgery, and breast surgery to the region.