Biography

T.J. has been a life long Clay County resident, born to Tom and Theo Berry on September 11, 1965. He graduated from Liberty High School in 1984 and then went on to Central Missouri State in Warrensburg, MO, where he earned a Bachelors degree in Graphic Arts Management. He completed his degree work in 3 years so he could marry his high school sweetheart, Shelly Ellison. They have two children Alex, a college freshman at UMKC who is in pre-med, and Sami, who is a junior at Kearney High School

At the beginning of his junior/senior year of college T.J. contracted the entrepreneurial bug. He started Oakstone Wood shavings. The company sold wood shavings to horse barns to use as their bedding material. This small business provided T.J. a great learning experience, along with a nice income, while he finished college and established himself in the business world.

Upon the completion of college T.J. joined Ashcraft Printing, where he had done a college internship. He was an account executive at Ashcraft Printing and his duties involved calling on accounts and establishing relationships to sell printing on an ongoing basis.

In 1991 three big events happened in T.J.'s life, the most important being the birth of his son Alex. The second event was the loss of his job due to the closing of Ashcraft Printing, which led to the third event, the starting of his second business, Business Cards, Ltd.

Business Cards Ltd. is a specialty business that prints business cards for companies with 50 to 2000 employees. As a business owner, T.J. has worn all of the hats from owner to chief bottle washer. In other words, for the last 19 years he has done whatever it takes to keep a business going.

2002 stands out as another turning point year in T.J.'s life. Doug Ervin, Missouri's Representative for the 35th District, asked T.J. to be his treasurer. For the last 7 years, T.J. has been active in the Missouri 35th District. That involvement has led him to the decision to run for this office, replacing Doug Ervin when his term ends in 2011. T.J. is often quoted as saying, “If good, consistent, ethical people don't stand up and run for office, we, the people, deserve what we get.”

Outside his business life T.J. attends First Baptist Church of Kearney where he teaches and has been a deacon for many years. He is an avid golfer and likes to socialize with his large group of friends. T.J. currently resides in rural Clay County, just outside of Kearney.