COVINGTON, Ga. — Funeral services are planned for today, Oct. 14, for a Covington retail industry "icon."

Longtime Covington "five and dime" store owner and operator James Parker Callahan, 92, died Tuesday, Oct. 11. 

The Covington native worked in the retail industry for 75 years, according to an obituary from J.C. Harwell and Son Funeral Home.

He managed the Covington locations of Harpers 5 and 10 Cent stores for the regional department store chain for many years before opening The Little Store on Church Street in downtown Covington in the mid-1980s and operating it for 36 years.

Mack McKibben, who will officiate the services for Callahan today, said Callahan "was just an icon."

"He just was so good with people," McKibben said.

Longtime Newton Countians recall growing up with Harpers — and the "smell of popcorn" upon entering — when it was the only discount department store before Walmart and Kmart opened in Covington.

One writer on the Tribute Wall on the J.C. Harwell and Son Funeral Home website said Callahan hired her for her first job at Harpers. "(He) always encouraged me for excellence," she wrote.

Another writer said she remembered Callahan — beginning as a young girl — from shopping at both Harpers and The Little Store.

The Little Store was family-owned and operated and featured such oddities as a talking bird.

"Whatever you were looking for that you couldn’t find in other stores, Mr. Callahan had it: hair products, wigs, stockings, children socks, hair bows, ribbons, flowers for your home, funeral flowers, birthday cards, sympathy cards.

"His wife would make you flowers for any occasion and, oh, I don’t wanna forget candies at the register, and the talking bird in the back of the store."

McKibben said he recalled the personal care Callahan took with his customers — down to helping McKibben care for his then-4-year-old daughter when she badly hurt herself on a bicycle chain as she checked out a two-wheeler in the longtime retailer's store. 

He and his daughter had traveled to the store on a motorcycle. Callahan "dropped everything" and drove the girl and her father in Callahan's personal vehicle to the hospital as McKibben became distraught after seeing the bloody wound the accident caused on his little girl.

"He didn't have to do that," McKibben said.

Earlier, McKibben recalled, as a boy, riding his bicycle with friends from his home in Oxford to Harpers for the wide variety of products that appealed to young people there.

McKibben, who has owned McKibben Music on the Covington Square since 2006, is also a professional musician and former pastor. 

He said Callahan helped nurture his interest and future career in music in the mid-1960s by allowing him and others to play records in the store they were considering buying.

"He was the only one who had vinyl (records)," McKibben recalled. "The first time I heard 'Cold Sweat' by James Brown was in his store."

It helped McKibben develop a longtime love of the 1960s R&B and soul music of such acts as James Brown and Sam & Dave, he said.

"While all my friends were listening to Led Zeppelin ... I was listening to Sam & Dave," McKibben said. 

Funeral services are set for today, Oct. 14, at 2 p.m.in the Chapel of J.C. Harwell and Son Funeral Home at 2157 East St. The family will receive friends from 1 to 2 p.m. at the funeral home prior to the service. 

J.C. Harwell and Son Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.

Callahan served in the National Guard and was a past member of the Covington Rotary Club, according to the obituary.

He is survived by his wife of 69 years, Dorothy; daughters, Roxanne Lambert of Carrollton, Paulette Crabb of Blairsville and Melinda Gibson of Shady Dale; as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren, the obituary stated.