Charles Virgil Powell

Mr. Charles Virgil Powell was born to Joseph and Virginia Powell in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, on June 3, 1938. He was the fourth son in a growing young family. He departed this life on Sunday, February 17, 2019, in Mooresville, North Carolina. Charles spent his early years in North Carolina. Then, in the early 1940s, Charles moved with his family to New York City, New York. Charles was educated in the New York City Public Schools in Harlem. As a young boy, his paternal grandmother, affectionately known as “Gumma Sarah”, took Charles to Southern Baptist Church regularly for services, where he became a member. His sister, Ruth Jean, recalls that Charles loved to run and play. She fondly remembers the hours they spent riding the New York City subways to Brooklyn to see their paternal grandfather, Henry Powell. It seems he always made those trips an adventure. As a teenager, Charles spent a lot of quality time with his grandfather, Henry Powell. After high school, Charles joined the family business and worked for his father at 4-Way Valet Service, a dry cleaner, shoe repair, hat renovation, and tailoring company. He became skilled in repairing shoes, renovating men’s hats and pressing clothing. The skills that Charles mastered at his father’s dry cleaners, eventually helped him to branch out on his own. Charles married Annie Graham in 1961, and they began their lives together in Brooklyn, New York, where their much younger siblings, nieces and nephews, and looked up to them as role models. The Powell family relocated to Queens, New York, where Charles pressed clothing at a dry cleaners in New Hyde Park. His home became the nexus of family gatherings for many different occasions. He looked forward to the annual trip to his wife’s hometown in Lincoln County, North Carolina, where he was very much loved by his nieces, nephews, and in-laws. Charles and his family moved to Charlotte, North Carolina, where he worked in the grocery industry. He retired from Bi-Lo Grocery Stores in Charlotte, in 2009. Charles was preceded in death by his devoted wife of 47 years, Annie Graham Powell, and brothers, Joseph Jr., Bobby, and Herbert Lee Powell. 

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