For Carl Couey, roller skating was life.
As a youth, skating kept Mr. Couey from hanging out on the corner and out of trouble. And he figured if it worked for him, it would work for others. That’s why he owned and operated four skating rinks in the metro Atlanta area since 1959, his daughter said.
“He thought it would be good for the kids to have something to do,” said Gina Couey Prince, of Fayetteville. “And it is still something a lot of kids and adults love to do.”
Mr. Couey was “happiest when he was on skates,” said Tina Allums, who manages Dazzles Roller Rink in Douglasville, one of the last roller rinks Mr. Couey opened. He had to hang up his skates a few years ago after he fell and broke his hip -- not while skating mind you -- but he still loved to watch others enjoy his favorite past time, she said.
"He was at Dazzles Friday night for our Halloween performance," Mrs. Allums said. "He came every weekend to sit and watch them skate."
William Carl Couey, of Douglasville, known as Carl to most, died Monday at Atlanta Medical Center, from injuries sustained in a recent fall at home. He was 88. A service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Thursday at Whitley-Garner at Rosehaven Funeral Home. The body will be buried at Rosehaven Memorial Park.
After the service and burial, friends and family will gather at Dazzles, to celebrate Mr. Couey.
“We originally did it there because the house was too small,” Mrs. Allums said. “But in reality, that’s where he’d want us to be. And if people want to bring their skates, that’s just fine. He’d want it that way.”
Mr. Couey, an Atlanta native, found skating as a fun activity during the late the '20s and early '30s, Mrs. Prince said.
“He used to skate at a roller rink on North Avenue near the old fire station,” she said. “I can’t think of the name of it, but he talked about it all of the time.”
In 1941, Mr. Couey joined the Army Air Corps and took his skates with him. When he returned home in 1945, he met Reba McCurdy, whom he married in 1946 but not before she learned to skate.
“While they were dating, he told her, ‘If you’re going to be with me you’re going to have to learn to skate,’ ” their daughter recalled. “And he put her in some rental skates and basically pushed her out there on the floor. But he bought her a pair of skates before the night was over.”
Mr. and Mrs. Couey owned and operated four rinks between 1959 and her death in 2009. They opened South Cobb Roller Rink in 1959. Two years later they opened Crescent Park Skating Rink and Swimming Pool, which they ran until their son Brad was killed in a car accident in 1981. The family moved to Nashville for a few years, but returned to the Atlanta area by 1986.
“When he got back, Daddy was bored to death, and Mama said, ‘You know you need to build a roller rink.’ So he did,” Mrs. Prince said.
On Oct. 31, 1989, the Douglasville Dazzles opened and a second followed, this one in Fayetteville, a year later.
In 2009, when he was 86, Mr. Couey had a skate party to celebrate 50 years in the roller rink business.
“He put on his skates and three people helped him do one lap around the floor,” Mrs. Allums said. “He had a ball. We all had a ball.”
In addition to his daughter, Mr. Couey is survived by two grandsons.
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