Everywhere Tom Alexander goes lately, he’s stopped by people who want to talk about what his dad, Henry “Hank” Alexander, meant to them.
“People on the street will make a point to tell me, ‘Oh, your dad was so friendly! He always took the time to speak to me and to shake my hand,’” Tom said. “We have had so many nurses at the different rehab places he’s been in, and they all thought he was the sweetest, kindest man they’d ever met.”
Henry Alexander, who died May 20 at age 91, had operated Alexander Office Supply in Crystal City for almost 40 years, first with his brother, Homer, then with his son.
Mr. Alexander was born in Little Rock, Ark., and lived there until he was about 10.
“Then his mom passed away,” said Tom, 65, of Festus. “He went to live with his brother, Homer, in Bonne Terre. He went to high school in Esther.”
Mr. Alexander spent four years in the Merchant Marines during World War II, then settled back in the Little Rock area, where he went to work for an office supply company.
An early marriage ended in divorce, and he met Helen Burgess when he had three young children and she had two.
“I worked at an insurance office in Little Rock, and he started there, too,” Helen said. “He would come in and everyone would say, ‘Ooh, here comes Helen’s boyfriend!’
“You know, it kind of irked me.”
But the two ironed out their differences, and married in 1961. The following year, he moved and went to work for his brother, Homer, who had relocated to the Twin Cities and started the store in the mid-1950s.
“They were where the Sherwin Williams store is now (at 506 Bailey Road),” Tom said. “I remember coming up in the summer of ’66 and helping clean out the building on Truman Boulevard for them to move into. It was a car dealership. They remodeled it and turned it into the office supply store.”
In 1971, Tom went to work for the family business. His uncle retired in the 1990s, and father and son continued working together until the store closed in 2000.
In its heyday, Alexander Office Supply did a considerable business not just in sales, but in service.
“Everything was mechanical – typewriters, calculators, cash registers,” Tom said. “I went to a lot of schools put on by the companies that manufactured the equipment, teaching how to work on the machines.
“Then in about 1975, electronics started coming in, and the companies pretty much all went out of business. We still serviced the old equipment, but it just got to be fewer and fewer.”
The company did a major remodeling in 1980, renaming the building the Alexander Center.
“We didn’t need as much room,” Tom said. “So we took one side of the building and made five office space sections to rent.”
He said it was an easy decision to close the business.
“It got to the point that new equipment was coming out so fast we just couldn’t keep up,” Tom said. “Dad was wanting to retire, and I was wanting to not do that kind of work any more.”
Mr. Alexander wasn’t the kind of man who had grandiose plans for retirement.
“He did what he liked to do, which was being with people,” his son said. “And he just never developed any outside interests. We might have gone fishing or camping once in a while when I was a kid, but that was about it.”
If he could be said to have a hobby, it was service.
“He thought it was very important to be part of the community,” Tom said. “He was really involved with the Toastmasters, he was an Optimist, he was in Rotary Club for a long time. He was really active in his church (First Baptist Church of Festus-Crystal City) and in the Gideons.
“He really liked to drive the church bus,” Helen said. “When he got to be 72, the insurance changed and he couldn’t drive them anymore. So he’d go on the bus and just be with the children.”
Mr. Alexander was known for his kindness.
“He was so considerate,” said Rhonda Alexander, Tom’s wife. “You could do something wrong, and he’d never judge you – he would just be there to support you. He didn’t talk down to anybody.”
“Everyone who knew him knew he was always happy,” Tom said. “He was in business for 40 or 50 years, and I don’t think he ever had a customer come back and say he was mistreated.”
And he was perceptive as well as generous.
“Sometimes people came by the store, looking for a handout,” Tom said. “Dad wouldn’t do that; I think he saw it as a pride thing. He’d say, ‘I won’t give you money, but I’ll let you work for it.’ And he’d find some kind of job they could do around the store.”
In 2004, Mr. Alexander fell down several steps.
“He had a twisted femur breakage,” Helen said “He had to keep his leg extended for four months.”
He was in a lot of pain, and went through several surgeries and many months of rehab to try and regain his mobility.
“He wasn’t sick,” Tom said. “He just couldn’t walk; it hurt too bad.”
But no matter what happened, Mr. Alexander maintained an upbeat outlook.
“He had a real good sense of humor and was always a jokester, always made you laugh,” Tom said. “He was fun to be with. You just enjoyed being around him.”
“Life Story,” posted each Saturday on Leader Publications’ website, focuses on one individual’s impact on his or her community.