About Us
Happy's of Madisonville, Inc. is a full-line "single source" office furniture & equipment dealership serving cental & western Kentucky. We represent scores of quality office furniture manufacturers, featuring modular office panel systems, desking solutions, office seating & filing systems. We offer all non-profit organizations, churches, schools, colleges, universities & government agencies (including federal, state, county & city municipalities), competitive GSA, Commonwealth of Kentucky or U.S. Communites pricing contracts from most of our office furniture manufacturers.
Our Story
Where did the “Happy” name come from? It first began back in 1914 with just one man, Mr. Howard David Happy. Single handedly, he traveled the regions of western Kentucky from his home in Mayfield, one of the larger towns in Graves county. Either by train or by “Model T Ford”, he pioneered the entire region by daily calling on business offices, educational facilities, government offices & manufacturing plants selling typewriters, adding machines & office supply items. Through sheer determination, his entreprenerial skills & hard work paid off in the years that followed. He set up "shop" in a prominent downtown storefront.
Happy's of Madisonville's story begins. In the early 1960's, Mr. C.B. Utley, Jr., of Madisonville, Ky. was an employee of Mr. Happy for several years, selling & servicing customers in Hopkins, Muhlenburg, Caldwell & Christian counties. After several years of success & with Mr. Happy's blessing, Mr. Utley opened his own downtown storefront dealership in Madisonville in 1962. In 1964, Barry Vaughn & Ronnie Vaughn (no relation), started working part-time with the company, after school & on Saturdays. As the high school & college years passed, Barry began teaching school. However, after a short time, he decided to go back to work at Happy's full-time, becoming store manager. After a few years had past, Ronnie left Happy's & began a 7 year Gospel music ministry career. However with the rigors of a 275+ day a year traveling schedule, it began wearing on him. He too decided to return "home" to Happy's.
The years past & in 1994, Mr. Utley decided to retire & sold the Madisonville dealership to Barry & Ronnie. From then til now, Happy's of Madisonville, Inc. has been greatly blessed with much success. We are very proud of our organization's heritage & truly honored to be celebrating the 55th. year anniversary of our Madisonville dealership's service to the business offices, manufacturing plants, churches, government agencies, schools, colleges & universities in western & central Kentucky. Both Barry & Ronnie will still say, they are "living the dream" that started long ago!
Ronnie retired in November of 2023 and sold his shares to Matt Vaughn, (Barry's son). Matt has been with Happy's since 1998. Learning the trade from working with Ronnie and Barry for the better part of his life, Matt will continue to offer the same great service and accountability.
