When Tommy Meredith was about eight or nine years old, his father signed him up for a sports tournament at the Phoenix YMCA. The tournament included swimming, running and even a card game. Meredith won the title of overall champion of his age group. He earned a five-inch high loving cup for his efforts.
He still has that trophy, which has been displayed for nearly 50 years on his headboard.
“It is a symbol to me that had an effect on my outlook for expectations in life,” he said. “It tells me if you have any kind of natural abilities, to try to use them. It motivated me and catapulted me into a future with a competitive spirit. It gave me the spirit and motivation for being competitive.”
Meredith and his wife, Joan, are familiar faces around the city of Prescott. They are the owners of the Jersey Lilly Saloon on Whiskey Row. The couple has welcomed guests there for the past 14 years.
They have been married for 53 years. She was Miss Congeniality in the 1956 Miss Arizona Pageant. Before that, she was Salad Bowl Queen, which was the precursor to the Fiesta Bowl. Tommy says she is still a beauty queen. They have two children and several grandchildren.
While Meredith was growing up, his family had ranches in Young, which incidentally is where some of the Zane Grey novels are set.
“We had the normal cattle ranch and horses to run them,” Meredith said. “I had a brother who was the real cowboy.”
In his late teens and early 20s, Tommy would go up twice a year for two-week round-ups. “It is a way of life, of course. You always have your own horse. Being out there it was just you and the cattle and your horse and the terrain,” he said. “It was fun. Rewarding. The only problem is you had newbies with you. You’d ask them to open a gate, but then they would just stand there. Cattle would not go through the gate with someone standing there.”
He said his father was also in the home-building, real estate business.
Meredith has lived in Arizona since the age of two when his parents moved from Texas. He attended Phoenix High School. He was the state wrestling champ there. He went to Arizona State University, where he lettered in wrestling and left with a degree in business.
Through the years, Meredith has been involved a lot of things, from racecars to antiques to real estate. He says it feels like he has lived three different lives and dressed differently for each. He would dress in boots and hats for his ranch life, in Ivy League shirts and slacks for his real estate life and in t-shirts and flip-flops for their summer home in San Diego. And he has always had a passion for hunting and fishing.
He and Joan came to Prescott 18 years ago. “Phoenix was getting big. I love Phoenix for what it is, but Prescott has the elevation and the pine trees, the weather and the four seasons,” he said. “We bought a summer home up here with the intention of coming up to slow down and retire.”
The couple considered starting a business with their extensive collection of antiques, which was housed in a 3,000-foot warehouse, but instead ended up buying the saloon.
“Everyone said, ‘What are you doing being in the saloon business?’ I don’t have a good answer for them,” he said. “There was a restaurant in Phoenix that we went to once a week. The owners were there all the time and I saw how they treated their customers when they came in; how they took care of them while they were there. I thought that was about right.”
He said every bar has its niche. “We just chose to be an upscale, over-30 bar. There is no food, but I spend a lot of money on popcorn.”
The saloon is on the second story with an outside balcony, which overlooks the courthouse town square and Whiskey Row. There is an elevator, but almost everyone climbs the stairs.
“The average age is over 30, but it does get younger on Friday and Saturday nights late,” he said. “It is a local bar on weekdays and we get tourists and day-trippers from Phoenix trying to get out of the heat. We do a fairly good job taking care of locals as well as tourists.”
Meredith is involved in local politics and the Prescott Downtown Partnership where he serves on the board, but the thing of which he is most proud is leading the charge to light up the trees on the town square during the holidays.
Meredith said six or seven years ago, he was complaining at a City Council meeting that the city was not doing enough to light up the trees, which was a shame since former Governor Rose Moffett had named Prescott a Christmas City.
“I just made the statement to them that we need to look like the Christmas City and needed a lot more money,” he said. “One of the councilmen said, ‘Tommy, Why don’t you do something about it?’ It sounded negative, so I said, ‘Mr. Councilman, I may do something about it.’”
He kicked off a fundraiser that sells paper light bulbs to customers, which are placed on display in the bar with the donor’s name written on them. During the campaign, the bar is covered with them.
“The first year, we raised $1,500. The last two years, we were right at $17,000. I’m kind of proud of that,” he said.
He said the newspaper gives them ad space and there are two kick-off parties, one of which is an auction and one during the holiday season. The trees are lighted from December to January.
“We have a lot of activities,” he said.
While on of the subject of fundraising, Joan and Tommy allow the use of their bar for a variety of fundraisers. “We donate space. We also do a lot of weddings and anniversaries and things like that,” he said.
Would he sell the saloon? His answer is “maybe.” He will turn 76 in July. “I’m getting to the point where we could talk,” Meredith said. QCBN