If heaven has a watermelon patch, this NC farmer can run its roadside stand
Freddy Pope loved tending to the gardens that flanked three sides of his Statesville-area home.
He raised corn, tomatoes, beets and his favorite of all: sweet, Charleston Gray watermelons.
Pope quickly developed a loyal following at Pope Produce, the roadside stand he opened outside his home after a long career as a supervising mechanic at two Iredell County mills, his son, Jamie Pope, told The Charlotte Observer.
“One lady would stop just to buy his beets, 40 to 50 pounds,” Jamie Pope said.
His dad greeted everyone with a smile and often left them laughing with his wisecracks, stories and jokes, Jamie Pope said.
Besides his family, Freddy Pope loved nothing more than riding his tractor, plowing his land and putting his hands in dirt, his son said.
He was an Army veteran who starred in three sports in high school and was voted most popular male student in his class.
“He was an amazing guy,” Jamie Pope said. “He brought a lot of joy to a lot of us.”
Freddy Allen Pope died on Friday, April 21, at age 89. His funeral was Tuesday.
Pope was on his tractor for the last time two weeks ago. He had already prepared his gardens for the coming season when he was admitted to a hospital for what turned out to be an enlarged thyroid, his son said. He had been on oxygen at night for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.
His dad grew and harvested the vegetables and watermelon in seven or more gardens. He especially loved his watermelons, Jamie Pope said, selling 50 one year.
In the first paragraph of Freddy Pope’s obituary, Jamie Pope wrote that his dad “was called home by his Heavenly Father to manage the Kingdom’s Charleston Grey watermelon patch.”
“If they don’t have one, he’d make one,” Jamie Pope told the Observer.
Stellar athlete, popular classmate
Freddy Pope’s love of gardening sprouted early in life, as an only child helping his parents garden in another rural part of Iredell County. Back then, in the 1930s and ‘40s, you grew what you ate, Jamie Pope said.
Pope also grew into one of the best high school athletes in the state, named all-conference in baseball, football and basketball at Scotts High, his family said. He was voted Mr. Scotts High as the most popular male student.
After graduating in 1952, he attended Appalachian State on an athletic scholarship, but left after his freshman year and joined the Army in 1954.
He served in Germany and coaxed his superiors to also let him serve later in Austria, Jamie Pope said. After his active duty service, he joined the Army Reserves.
His family will forever remember his devotion to his wife, children and grandchildren, the way he left them smiling and laughing with his stories and sayings.
“I’m gonna let the air out of your tires the next time I see you,” he’d tease someone he thought was trying to pull one over on him. Then he’d burst out laughing, his son said.
Jamie Pope said he learned from his dad: “Don’t take life too seriously.”
He also was “very independent,” daughter-in-law Julie Pope told the Observer.
“He was comfortable in his own skin,” her husband, Jamie Pope, said, noting how his dad let known what was on his mind.
‘31 years of true love’
He also loved his wife and best friend of 31 years, Katie Fox, Julie Pope said.
The couple met at Beauty Maid Mills in Statesville, where Katie Fox was a seamstress and Freddy Pope a machinist.
“Thirty-one years of true love,” Fox’s daughter, Debra Darnell, wrote in a tribute to Freddy Pope.
“Freddy took great care of Mom, and she always teased him that she was ‘boss,’” Darnell said. “He was always telling me, ‘Don’t you worry about your momma, honey. I’ll take care of her.’ And he did.”
Pope’s stories of life “would make you laugh until you cried, and we heard many of them,” Debra Darnell said. “We spent most all holidays and vacations together, and there was never a dull moment.”
Darnell wasn’t “just a stepdaughter” to Pope, she said. “I was his daughter, and I treated him as my own dad.”
Darnell said she, her husband and their two boys “adopted” Pope as “Dad and Grandpa.”
“He was part of us, and a piece of our family that will be truly missed,” Darnell said. “Soar high Daddy Freddy, until we all meet again.”
Pope also is survived by daughters, Julie Presler and Tari Pope, five grandchildren and two great grandchildren.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests contributions be made to Gordon Hospice House, Hospice & Palliative Care of Iredell County.
