For more than 30 years, Hewatt's Supermarket was a fixture on Stone Mountain's Main Street, serving as a classic small-town grocery.
"It stocked the freshest of meats, vegetables and fruit," said a fellow merchant, Nan Nash, proprietor of the Stone Mountain Old Post Office Emporium, "but beyond that, it was a friendly place where Sam Hewatt knew all his customers' names, where I could send my 11-year-old daughter to buy some things and he would call me when she was done to let me know it was time to pick her up."
Together, Sam Hewatt and his brother Ralph, who died earlier this year, ran a full-service grocery, even accepting phone orders and making deliveries free of charge. "Uncle Ralph concentrated on the meat counter while Daddy was in charge of the rest of the store," said a daughter, Mary Ellen Malone of Loganville.
Once honored as grocer of the year by an independent grocers association, Mr. Hewatt made a point of studying the competition, Mrs. Malone said. When he traveled, he often dropped by other groceries and checked out their strong and weak points.
"Daddy was very particular about the way the supermarket looked -- it had to be neat and clean at all times," she said.
His employees had to adhere to a similar standard -- no long hair, beards or tattoos, said her sister, Nancy Collins of Stone Mountain.
Some of Mr. Hewatt's customers from years ago have told family members of his generosity when they were hard-pressed financially.
"One woman told me about a time when she had no food to feed her children, and he let her fill her cart with groceries, telling her she could pay him later," Mrs. Collins said. "But when she did attempt to pay him afterward, he told her to keep her money, that she needed it more than he did."
Sam Jefferson Hewatt, 89, died Thursday at his Loganville home of respiratory failure. The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Sunday at Wages & Sons' Stone Mountain Chapel with burial to follow at Snellville Historical Cemetery.
Born in Loganville, Mr. Hewatt got as far as the eighth grade before having to work on the farm of his father, Wheeler Hewatt. Later, he and brother Ralph worked at the grocery that his father began in Stone Mountain in the early 1940s. In 1960 it was moved to a new building on Main Street.
Inducted into the Army during World War II, Mr. Hewatt became an ambulance driver in the Medical Corps. He landed on the beach at Normandy, France, on D-Day Plus One, and six months later was one of the many U.S. soldiers surrounded by German forces during the Battle of the Bulge.
Mr. Hewatt didn't tell his family much about his wartime service, Mrs. Collins said, except to say he worried at one point that he and his buddies might never break out of the German encirclement. "Daddy also was awarded a Purple Heart for a shrapnel wound and a Bronze Star for valor, but we don't know the circumstances for either medal," she said.
Mr. Hewatt had a passion for cars, especially those made by the Ford Motor Co. "Daddy traded cars in practically every year," Mrs. Collins said. "Oh, he occasionally tried another brand, but it wouldn't be long before he was back behind the wheel of a Ford or a Mercury or a Lincoln."
Mrs. Malone said his grocery customers often would inquire whether her father was in the market for a new car because they wanted to buy his current model. "They knew Daddy kept his cars in as good a shape as he kept his supermarket," she said.
He also enjoyed NASCAR racing and traveled around the South to hallowed tracks, including Daytona Beach, Talladega, Charlotte and Atlanta Motor Speedway.
A deacon at the First Baptist Church of Stone Mountain, Mr. Hewatt occupied a number of leadership positions there, including treasurer. He also was an active member of the local Veterans of Foreign Wars post and the Stone Mountain Village Business Association.
Also surviving are his wife of 70 years, Elizabeth Hewatt; five grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
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