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Chafer Honea is pictured here as a young man in the Army. At the age of 85 he is a bag boy at Publix in Mount Pleasant.

Sully Witte

Chafer Honea is a celebrity at the Publix in Queensborough Shopping Center.

And when you look at his life, he exactly right.

Most men his age  have slowed down quite significantly—not Honea.

He is eight years into his second career working as a bag boy at Publix at Queensborough.  

Honea adores his job, in which he gets to talk with the locals as well as  the visitors to the Lowcountry.  

He keeps count of how many out of state cars are in the parking lot and only has two states he has not come across yet - Hawaii and North Dakota.  

The WWII veteran is recognized everywhere he goes.

Honea married his high school sweetheart.

 They have two daughters.

Chafer Honea

He grew up in Anderson, S.C. and is one of 11 children.

Just 10 days before he graduated from high school he received his war draft papers. He was set off to join the Army just one day after receiving his diploma.

On May 28, 1943 he was inducted into Fort Jackson. A series of stops at Army training centers around the country landed him on a ship to Naples, Italy. It took 11 days at sea to get there. The invasion of France had taken place and Honea was assigned to the 433rd Anti-Aircraft Battalion.

The men marched through the Rome Valley of France shooting at enemy planes.

“There were so many of us we didn’t know who was actually making contact with the planes,  but we received a lot of artillery from the Germans,” Honea said.

While in a convey in Nuremberg, Germany he was stopped and ordered on a three day furlough to Paris.

When Honea arrived, he received word that the war had ended. The European celebrations had begun.

He witnessed Paris, the City of Lights come back alive. And while strolling solo down the famous Champs de Elysees he passed four ladies. He politely stepped around them and heard one call out in fairly discernable English, “come back here.”

He stopped and spoke with the women who were out strolling as a family. They invited him to lunch the next day.

One of those women was named Anne Marie. At the time Honea nor Anne Marie knew she would indirectly influence his life.

The War with Japan was still raging and Honea was sent back to his outfit. By August he had received another furlough. This time it was to London. Again, while on furlough, the war had ended. He served until Jan. 25, 1946 and went home to marry a young girl named Joyce who he had known most of his life.

“I knew I was going to marry him,” she said. “We grew up right around the corner from each other and dated through high school.”

They married Nov. 28, 1946.

This Thanksgiving they will celebrate their 63rd wedding anniversary.

While pregnant with their first daughter, picking out a name became a daunting task.

Joyce and Chafer could not agree on anything and finally fed up with the whole process, Joyce told him “let’s just name her after one of your old girlfriends.”

The first name that popped into Chafer’s head was Anne Marie.

The couple eventually went on to have another daughter, Bonnie, who is a teacher at Laurel Hill Primary School.

Chafer and Joyce raised their family in Anderson where Chafer worked in a textile plant for 20 years. He then went into business with his brother-in-law and for 14 years ran a dry cleaning business.

But retirement was not in the cards.

His love of baseball and  basketball, a sport he played in high school, led him to White Jones Hardware and Sporting Goods. He worked there for 18 years before he finally retired.

During that time he was a member of the American Legion Drum and Bugel Corps, one of very few in the state.

With his daughters starting families of their own, Chafer and Joyce’s wanted to be near their grandchildren.

After Bonnie moved her family to Mount Pleasant, they sold the family home and moved to the Lowcountry where Chafer immediately immersed himself in activities such as darts, horse shoes and bowling.

He joined several leagues and participated in the Citadel Senior Games. Today he bowls on Wednesdays and plays horseshoes at Alhambra Hall on Thursdays.

He also participates in the Cooper River Bridge Run and Walk — something he has done for the last eight years.

Despite staying active, Chafer said he still felt like he had too much time on his hands.

“I was bored to be quite honest with you,” he said. “I thought, maybe I can get a job at Publix which is right around the corner.”

Joyce told him they would never hire him because he didn’t want to work nights or weekends.

“I didn’t want work to interfere with my time with Joyce,” Chafer said. “But I went in there anyway, we talked about an hour and they hired me. They told me to make my own schedule and I have been doing so for the last eight years.”

He works Monday and Friday from 9 a.m. - 3 p.m. and Tuesday and Wednesday from 2 - 7 p.m.

Everyone knows Chafer.

He stops to talk to the moms and the babies in the parking lot as he collects the baskets and gives the little ones a balloon at the check out counter. He’s even watched triplets grow up over the last eight years.

Customers insist on going to Chafer’s line whether they have to wait or not.

“I’ve met a lot of wonderful people and made some really great friends,” he said. “I know a lot about our customer’s lives.

“He’s a real people person,” Anne Marie said. “He never meets a stranger.”

Active at 85

Chafer’s family came to Charleston this past weekend to celebrate his birthday with him.

And when they all depart for home, he’ll get back to writing his memoirs. He’s a whiz with dates and can even tell you his Army serial number. He remembers the exact date and time, April 6, 1936 when a tornado blew through town and tore the homes in his neighborhood to shreds. His childhood home suffered minor damage and everyone inside was alright, he noted.

Staying busy is the secret to his longevity he said and of course “Ms. Joyce is a great cook.”

Anne Marie described him as a gentleman and an easy going soul that doesn’t upset easily.

“Mom does the worrying,” she said.

His grandchildren bring much joy to his life — after all he has eight grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Chafer is honored to be recognized for his war efforts and smiles when he thinks of the fact that he is still working at the age of 85.

But to Chafer it’s just life as usual.

staff photo by sully witte

Chafer Honea is a celebrity at the Publix in Queensborough Shopping Center.