Angie Jackson is a Woman Who Means Business

But something changed overnight. “I went to bed and thought, ‘Once they sell, you’re never going to get that back.’” In the morning, Jackson called her dad, who she has “an amazing relationship” with, and asked a pointed question: What do you think about women in this business? Do you really think a woman can do it? In an industry where women rarely held upper-management roles in the early ’90s, he was unwavering: “Absolutely. I don’t see any reason why you wouldn’t succeed.” Jackson moved back to Lebanon in January 1993, joining the business her grandparents founded in 1957. She describes it as “the best move I’ve ever made.”

Family has always been the throughline. Jackson worked summers at Justice through high school alongside her father and grandfather, building respect for what they created—and a determination to protect it. “My goal has always been to continue to carry the tradition. I have not changed our core values [quality products and customer service],” she says. “I’m very proud of that.” She now passes those values on to the next generation: her youngest daughter, Payne, who started working at the company in December.

That people-first philosophy shapes how Jackson leads. “I believe the heartbeat of any company is its people,” she says. “I don’t care if you’re Fortune 500 or you’re a small company,” adding that “smaller businesses have more heart.”

This same belief guided Justice through the COVID-19 pandemic, when Jackson dedicated the manufacturing plant to producing isolation gowns for CoxHealth. Justice ultimately supplied them more than 1 million gowns—without furloughing a single employee.

Now, with Payne stepping into the business, Jackson finds herself navigating familiar but deeply personal terrain. “The next chapter for us will be balancing the mother-daughter relationship with me being president and her being the fourth-generation leader,” she says, adding she hopes to “stay in the saddle until I’m 70.”

Equally important, she wants her daughter to see what’s possible. “I want her to know you can have it all,” she says.

Although Jackson once measured success by her next promotion, “now, ‘successful’ means being able to balance my work life with my family life,” she says. The life she’s built reflects that definition—from marrying her husband on a golf course to raising a family shaped by their shared passion: Her daughters and one granddaughter are named after legendary golfers. And while she still enjoys visiting big cities, Jackson’s roots remain firmly planted. “There’s no better place to raise your family,” she says.