Shine On Tiny Diamond

Shine On Tiny Diamond

In honor of Black History Month, we want to introduce you to Larothea Diamond, known to all as Tiny. Contrary to her name, she is indeed larger than life with her warm personality and has a positive impact on everyone she meets. Tiny has been working at Mohawk for 35 years and comes from a long line of women and men who have worked in the same carpet plant in Glasgow, Virginia. This plant is our carpet tile plant in the Blue Ridge Mountains, which was part of Burlington and then Lees Carpet when Tiny started her career. She is the third generation of her family to work at Mohawk, where both her parents and her grandfather also worked. This legacy is not only important to Tiny, who is proud to carry on the work of her family, but also to Mohawk, where a sense of community is vital.

Tiny came to Mohawk following in her parents’ footsteps after graduating high school. She was persistent in getting her first job in 1986, after she realized working local fast-food places wasn’t for her. She started at Lees with spinning twisted yarns onto spools. Over the years, Tiny moved through different departments to develop her expertise and skills with both yarn, color, and backings. She worked in cable twisting, knitting, and shipping. She also enjoyed working for five years on our yarn color bank. Today, Tiny works on the NXT backing line as a coater, which she has been doing for the last seven years. She is also running trials of a new top-secret product coming out soon!

Tiny enjoys her role at Mohawk, contributing to world-class products that get shipped and used by people around the world. She was thrilled when Mohawk provided our “Learn and Live” carpet for football’s biggest championship in 2019 that was held in Atlanta. She is also a UNC Tar Heels fan and was excited to make carpet for the university. But her favorite thing about working at Mohawk is her enthusiasm for working with people and serving as a mentor for her colleagues. She sees her co-workers as a family, which makes sense since Mohawk is a family affair to her. She also believes that “you never meet a stranger”, meaning everyone she meets is welcome in her world.

It is not a surprise to hear of Tiny’s pride and commitment to Mohawk’s products and customers, as the Glasgow plant is known for its friendly workforce that takes pride in their craftsmanship. The team at the factory call that this “common thread” that ties the company together. In 2017, the plant was featured in a PBS television series called “Made in Virginia”, with Tiny being interviewed in this segment, serving as an ambassador for the plant and her community. Mohawk congratulates Tiny on an outstanding career, which is still ongoing, and for making history as a third-generation woman of color in carpet production. Everyone looks forward to seeing more from Tiny in the future, as her lasting legacy will be huge.