A memorial service will be held Thursday for Byron Freeman, the longtime owner of the Carolina Coffee Shop in downtown Chapel Hill. Freeman died at his home near Saxapahaw on Friday. He was 83.
Freeman, a Pennsylvania native, moved with his family to Raleigh when he was six. He served in the Marine Corps during the Korean War, and studied piano at Julliard and UNC after the war ended.
While at UNC, Freeman was the official ringer at the school’s Bell Tower.
He purchased Carolina Coffee Shop in 1958, and owned it until 1999, when he sold it to Greg Owens, the founding owner of 501 Diner.
Dave Roberston is the beverage manager at Southern Rail in Carrboro. He followed in some family footsteps to work for Freeman at the coffee shop, back in the `80s.
“My uncle Jesse Robertson worked for him in the early `70s,” said Roberson. “He went to grad school working there. I worked there with Frank Heath, and worked brunch shifts for about a year-and-a-half.
“Byron was quite a character. He sat up front with his Natural Lite and watched over the restaurant.”
While under Freeman’s ownership, The Carolina Coffee Shop became known for providing customers with a friendly atmosphere and classical music, as well as excellent egg dishes, waffles and grits.
“He was an incredible concert pianist,” said Roberston. “That’s what my uncle says – I never got to hear it. From what my uncle says, in the early `70s, he threw some legendary Christmas parties.”
Dave Robertson added that he remembers Byron Freeman as gregarious, quick-witted, and “a wonderful man.”
In recent years, Freeman had retired to his home in the woods in Alamance County.
A memorial service for Byron Freeman will be held at 2 p.m. on July 23 at University United Methodist Church, located at 150 East Franklin Street in Chapel Hill. A reception will follow. A Raleigh service with full military honors will be announced soon.
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