Thank you for sharing some of your valuable time with us to learn about our family owned and operated business. Jerry Fendon started serving customers throughout the Eastern Sierra in 1949. Back then, Jerry lived in Ontario, CA and made the trip up the Owens Valley into Inyo and Mono Counties stopping in all of the little towns along the way including Lone Pine, Independence, Big Pine, Bishop, Mammoth or Mammoth Lakes, June Lake and Lee Vining. During those days, Jerry would pickup furniture to reupholster and mattress sets to rebuild. Then a few weeks later, he would make the trip again to return the beautifully reupholstered furniture and rebuilt mattress sets to his customers throughout the Eastern Sierra, many of whom became lifelong friends.

Jerry and Shirley Rae Fendon

In time, Jerry met Shirley Rae Whorff in Bishop. Jerry and Shirley were eventually married and they established Fendon’s Upholstery in Bishop. Shirley Rae’s parents, Bill and Mazie Whorff, owned the Copper Kettle coffee shop and the Kittie Lee Inn in downtown Bishop. The Copper Kettle was one of the best restaurants in the area while the Kittie Lee was well known for its hospitality and great atmosphere. For many years, Jerry cooked on the early morning shift starting at 5am with, Bill Whorff, in the Copper Kettle before going out to the shop (behind the restaurant) around 8:30am in the morning to reupholster furniture for the rest of the day. As a side note, another fine restaurant, Whiskey Creek, is now located where the Copper Kettle and the Kittie Lee Inn used to sit and Fendon’s Furniture is still located behind Whiskey Creek in Bishop.

For many years, Jerry & Shirley Rae, would travel throughout the whole area from Lone Pine to Mammoth Lakes as well as to June Lake and Lee Vining picking up furniture to reupholster and mattresses to rebuild. Of course they also established a strong base of customers in Bishop and Big Pine too. In the early 1960s, Jerry added new mattress sets and new furniture to Fendon’s growing repertoire of products and services. Throughout the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s, Jerry and Shirley grew the business and remodeled the building numerous times going from the original 800 square foot building to the current 13,000 square foot building located behind Whiskey Creek in Bishop. In 2007, Jerry continued improving the business by building a new 4800 square foot warehouse. The new warehouse has made receiving and delivering furniture more efficient and easier for our hard working staff.

Jerry and Shirley still love the business and even now, they still work in the store most days. Shirley helps answer the phones and in the office. Jerry continues to manage the reupholstery, wood refinishing and furniture repair shop and does all of the shop estimates. He especially loves the creative aspect of working in the shop solving problems and creating beautifully restored pieces of furniture. Fendon’s talented and experienced craftspeople can do anything from reupholstering a beautiful heirloom sofa to refurbishing restaurant booths and chairs. They can also beautifully restore wood and antique furniture as well as repair damaged or broken furniture such as we often repair for condominium or “condo” rentals in Mammoth Lakes and property managers and vacation or 2nd homeowners throughout the area.

Jerry and Shirley’s son, Randy Fendon, runs the retail furniture and mattress side of the business working with the sales team to manage buying, doing marketing and handling the financial components of the business. Randy loves to find innovative or new products that Fendon’s customers will love and find valuable. In the last few years Randy brought in the Tempur-Pedic® line of pressure-relieving sleep systems and Mitsubishi big screen high-definition televisions. Both have been very popular with customers.

Cheri and Randy Fendon at a Staff Christmas Party

Today, Fendon’s has the largest furniture and mattress showroom in the Eastern Sierra. We have a great selection of comfortable home furnishings from Broyhill®, Lane®, AspenHome™, Guildcraft of California, Ashley® and many more quality manufacturers. We are also the exclusive dealer in Inyo and Mono Counties for Simmons Beautyrest®, Tempur-Pedic® and Natura mattress sets. And we sell Mitsubishi big-screen high definition TV’s as well as carpet and decorative accessories. Of course, we still do furniture reupholstery, furniture refinishing, furniture repair and antique furniture restoration.

Fendon’s continues to actively serve customers from Lone Pine to Mammoth or Mammoth Lakes, June Lake and Nevada too! We make frequent deliveries in the Bishop and Big Pine areas and we make one to four trips to Mammoth Lakes each week depending on our delivery load. We also deliver to Lone Pine, June Lake and Lee Vining as well as deliveries as needed to Tonopah, Hawthorne, Round Mountain and other Nevada locations.

From the start, Fendon’s has offered quality service and products. Our business is built on integrity and service that stems from our desire to treat every customer with consideration and respect. We are grateful to have the wonderful people who work with us and help us serve our customers every day including our sales team, office personnel, and shop and delivery staff. Of course, we are most grateful for all of our local and out-of-town customers who have continued to shop with us repeatedly over the years. Many of you have become good friends and part of our family!

This is the north entrance of our store behind Whiskey Creek in Bishop.  The beautiful mural on our building depicts the historic “Slim Princess” narrow gauge train pulling into the Laws Station north of Bishop.  This mural was sponsored by Fendon’s for the Bishop Mural Society.