Sunday Salute: A Southern gentleman, who put others first all the days of his life – The Fayetteville Observer

A graveside service of simplicity and beauty not far from the cedar tree, and just as Joe Thompson would have wanted it to be.

These 50-some mourners who gathered apart underneath the shade of the cedar tree had taken their leave. Alone, a red rose in his grasp, a son would take this solemn moment with his father for a last farewell.

Alex Thompson placed a hand on the mahogany coffin, and the moment was long and and poignant on this sunny Wednesday morning when a wife, a daughter, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and those friends beneath the cedar tree would come to remember and celebrate the life of Joe Thompson at Lafayette Memorial Park.

Hes home, Alex Thompson would say.

Joe Thompson was born Nov. 10, 1933, in Charlotte to the late Joe Leighton Thompson and Mary Burleson Thompson, the second-born of their five children.

Soon, the couple would call Fayetteville home, raising their family along Brookside Avenue in Haymount before Joe L. Thompson would build what would become the home place in the cul-de-sac of Club Circle along Raeford Road.

Joe Thompsons daddy was a savvy businessman, with an eye for developing the land, particularly along Raeford Road in the late 1950s and early 1960s, when there were just two lanes of U.S. 401 and long before development of his Highland Centre and the retail stores and fast-food restaurants of today that came along.

Everything is for sale, except for my wife and family, the family patriarch liked to muse, but Ill consider any offer.

Joe and Mary Thompson reared their children to believe in self-integrity, and there could be no breach. They taught three sons and two daughters to live by the Golden Rule, and there could be no compromise. Be people of honesty and virtue and character throughout your lives, they were taught, and accept nothing less in yourselves than your best, and share what you become with others in your community.

They were Thompsons, and they left their fingerprints and footprints throughout a community from business ventures to the courtrooms to Highland Presbyterian Church, where their faith measured their steps along lifes way.

When you think about Joe and the life that he lived, celebration is the appropriate response, the Rev. Chip Stapleton, senior pastor at Highland Presbyterian Church, would tell those surrounded under the cedar tree.

But no lengthy eulogy, Joe Thompson instructed, for this day.

Because he just wasnt that kind of guy to want to have the focus on him, the preacher would say. Instead, he always made others the focus. Whether it was his family, his friends or one of the many people that sought him out for business or personal advice, he always put others first. Its just who Joe was.

And, the preacher would say, Joe Thompson wanted something else.

The second thing that would have been important to him about this service was that everyone coming had a chance to hear the Gospel, Stapleton would say. This was important to him, because faith in Jesus was central to everything about Joe.

His faith was the foundation of who he was.

His dedication to others and his faith in God converged at Highland Presbyterian Church, Stapleton would say. His church that he loved dearly and faithfully served. Wherever he was with friends and family, at church, in the business world, he put others before himself.

Joe Gerald Thompson died April 5.

He was 86.

Ive never been to a funeral when no one shook hands, hugged or stood that far apart, Paul Paschal would say. But it had its own simplicity and beauty. He was a true Southern gentleman, and if Mr. Thompson had died before this pandemic, Highland Presbyterian Church would have been packed full with the Thompson clan and all those who know and love them. Their reputation for honesty and fair play is rare in this world, and they dont make them like him very often.

He was soft-spoken.

He was reflective.

He counted his blessings.

Kind and gentle, yet strong and faithful, the preacher would say, Shrewd and astute in business, but to always have time for children and not just his own, but all of the children of the neighborhood and any children.

And no more so than those Thanksgivings at his Merry Bee farm in Hoke County, where Thompsons by generations gathered on the rolling landscape with the pond and the cows and calves in the field that was close to Joe Thompsons heart.

A son would pause for a last farewell before gently placing the red rose on the mahogany coffin.

He is home, Alex Thompson would say of this father so admired, respected and loved dearly by him and a sister and a wife of such caring ways. He is home.

Columnist Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at bkirby@fayobserver.com or 910-624-1961

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Sunday Salute: A Southern gentleman, who put others first all the days of his life - The Fayetteville Observer