ROSE HILL — The sad passing of the beloved former business owner David Godwin of Godwin’s IGA in Rose Hill is mourned by the community and his family.
Daughter of Godwin, Vickie Baker, speaks with the paper to share fond memories of her father.
“I started working when I was 12. I bought the store from daddy in ‘96. We sort of flip flopped roles where I was working for him before then he and mom started working for me at that point,” said Baker.
Born in 1929, Godwin was born and raised in Wilmington and sold newspapers on Front Street. He started working in grocery retail at 15 years-old. He served four years in the military during the Korean War and met his soon to be wife, Evelyn, who was working in Whiteville at Roses department store while he was a Marine.
“He started out being a Winn-Dixie guy. He learned a lot about his training and how to be manager material from there.”
Godwin had worked and operated stores in Laurinburg, Wallace, and then ventured to Rose Hill.
“We’ve been here for just over fifty years.”
The IGA was started from the ground up by the Godwin family but it was not an easy endeavor.
A distributor that Godwin was buying from at the time tried to offer suggestions to the grocery store as it was working hard to grow.
“This was the third grocery business that daddy had started from scratch. He knew how to build a business but he was having the most difficult time in Rose Hill.”
The distributor from the warehouse came and he talked to him early on in his career about business in Rose Hill which was struggling with the overhead at the time.
“Lock the door. Turn around and throw the keys on top of the building and walk away,” said the distributor to Godwin back then.
This put a fire under Mr. Godwin to figure it out. He was creative and hard working so he made it work.
“What this man didn’t know was that daddy was so determined.”
“Through the years, through the process of elimination, he was able to finally build a good business.”
Godwin believed in himself and his family enough that he could do it and accomplish long-term success with the store.
“Daddy had a lot of grit and a lot of determination about him,” said Baker.
“It was just a matter of finding the right combination of what was going to work.”
Godwin was always on time for work and involved in every process of running a store and exuded kindness to all.
“He didn’t know a stranger. He would talk to anybody. You’d rarely ever see him frown. It was usually a smile. He’d walk around whistling or humming a song — he enjoyed music. He was a people person.”
“He instilled in us children, you never know what kind of day people are having. Sometimes you’re the only kind word they hear all day. He was always positive.”
He worked well with his wife Evelyn and held onto his love for her for their almost seven decades together.
You would find Godwin with a cheerful attitude and desire to provide the best to everyone he interacted with in his daily life.
“The main thing I think that I learned is you just treat people like you want to be treated.”
This even came down to their staff who may have called Godwin’s IGA their first job.
“When you train these young people to work, we treat them like our own children.”
He knew that the employees needed to learn proper etiquette and brought old school values to the table. They showed them what to do side-by-side to make sure that the team was guaranteed to be successful.
This would come down to the littlest things like making sure not to put egg cartons on top of bread.
“You don’t want squished bread!”
“He enjoyed working with people that he could train. That was part of his expertise.”
From meat cutters to people in grocery store floor roles, Godwin trained all employees — even his children. Baker looks to her son Adam to take over as a third generation businessman.
Family was always sacred to Godwin.
“When they would get off at night, my sister and I actually were working at the same time with them. Mama would send us home and we would start supper and then she would come home and finish it up. After she and daddy worked all day together, he’d come through the kitchen and he’d give her a peck on the cheek. He’d been with her all day but he’d just give her a peck on the cheek or give her a squeeze when he came through. And that says a lot.”
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