BY KATHY ROPPKATHY.ROPP@MYHORRYNEWS.COM

The Horry County Boardof Architectural Review cel-ebrated with two Conwaybusinesses this past week asthey recognized them as of-ficial Legacy businesses.Norman’s Cleaners and

Ocean Fish Market earnedtheir new statuses by oper-ating for more than 50years.Although Norman’s

Cleaners has been in busi-ness for 54 years, it has notalways been at the same lo-cation. It has always beenowned and operated by theMoore family.Norman Moore opened

the business on Third Av-enue in 1962. He latermoved his business to Lau-rel Street, and in 1972moved to its present loca-tion on Fourth Avenue atMain Street. The corner hadpreviously been the site of atheatre and a service sta-tion, which Moore reno-vated.Norman Moore’s son,

Tommy Moore, ran thebusiness for many years be-fore his son Bradley joinedhim on the managementteam.Tommy Moore also spoke

at the celebration of an-other Legacy business, Con-way National Bank, that hada hand in getting his busi-ness started. Moore said in1962 CNB employee BruceAnderson financed thebusiness for his father. Hesaid Anderson provided hisfather $500 for operatingcapital to get the businessgoing.Moore didn’t miss the

chance to thank his employ-ees for their excellent serv-ice over years, and pointedout that one of his employ-ees, Lorine Grissett, is athird generation employee.Grissett is a presser of finegarments at Norman’s.Moore also thanked his

customers saying many ofthem are also in their thirdgeneration of having theirduds cleaned in Norman’s

suds.The celebrants then

moved to Ocean Fish Mar-ket at 302 Kingston St., be-hind Kingston PresbyterianChurch, to official stamp itas a Legacy business.BAR Chairman James B.

“Jamie” Thompkins III has aspecial interest in OceanFish Market because someof his relatives started it.“It’s special to me because

it is part of my familylegacy,” he said, adding thatit serves as a Conway land-mark where it sits onKingston Lake.Thompkins said his an-

cestors, a Sarkis family, weresome of the early Lebaneseimmigrants in Conway,coming in 1920 or so.His great-great-grandfa-

ther Josephus “Joe” SarkisSr. opened a fish market on

Laurel Street where Grady’sJewelers is now.His son Jo-Jo Sarkis,

Thompkins’ great-grandfa-ther, then opened a secondfish market that becameOcean Fish Market.When Joe Sr’s health

began to failure, Jo-Jomoved back to the LaurelStreet market. The Sarkisfamily then gave the sec-ond site to George Martin,an employee. Martin andhis partner Marie ShelleyGraham were partners inthe original Ocean FishMarket that opened in theearly 1940s, making it 75-years-old. Graham andMartin ran the business to-gether for 50 years. Gra-ham, her daughter JaniceGraham Jordan and herhusband F.W. Graham co-owned the business with

Marie until 1998 when theysold it to Diane and RayHardee, who also ownShelley’s Seafood in Con-way.The Hardees and their

daughter Jennie haveowned and operatedOcean Fish Market for 18years now. The businesshas stayed in the family be-cause Diane is a niece ofMarie Graham.The business was origi-

nally located across thestreet from its current lo-cation; it was moved just afew years after opening itsdoors. The current build-ing was originally used asa blacksmith shop in theearly 1900s. The metalrings on the brick walloutside of the business,where people tied up theirhorses when they came

into town, are still there,according to informationprovided by Horry County. Hardee said the unique-

ness of his business andits shady location on thelake have attracted lots ofmedia attention over theyears. Stories about thebusiness have appearedtwice in Charleston Maga-zine and once in GrandStrand Magazine.Ocean Fish Market and

Norman’s Cleaners nowjoin several other officialHorry County Legacy busi-nesses, including Rhue’sMortuary, Hucks andWashington Furniture,Donzelle’s Restaurant,Nye’s Pharmacy, ConwayNational Bank and Pal-metto Chevrolet in Con-way and Peaches Cornerin Myrtle Beach.

A12 THE HORRY INDEPENDENT | CONWAY, S.C.| LOCAL | MARCH 17, 2016

www.myhorrynews.com

Two Conway landmarks named Legacy businesses

Ocean Fish Market joined several other Horry Countylegacy businesses in a ceremony this past week. Here, own-ers Jennie, Diane and Ray Hardee look over memorabilia

for the business with Jamie Thompkins, whose familystarted the business.

PHOTOS BY KATHY ROPP / THE HORRY INDEPENDENT

Board of Architectural Review Chairman Jamie Thompkins congratulatesTommy Moore, who now owns an official Legacy business. Moore’s wife

Lynn is pictured to the right of Moore and their son Bradley is pictured tothe left of his dad.

| POLICE |

FROM A10

Ex-girlfriend with a gunA Conway man told police

when he was not at home hisex-girlfriend went to his housewith her boyfriend to see herchildren, according to a Conwaypolice report.The children told police the

woman walked right into thehouse without knocking.The man said he got home

when the duo was about theleave. He went to their vehicleand asked why they were there.He says his ex-girlfriend cockeda gun and pointed it at his chest,according to the Conway policereport.The ex-girlfriend fled when

the man’s new girlfriend calledpolice.

Loris school fightTwo 13-year-old students at

Loris Middle School were citedfor disorderly conduct afterHorry County police say theyfought at school.An officer says when he got to

the hallway where the fight hap-pened early one morning thispast week, he found one stu-dent being held by a teacherand a second young girl inside aclassroom.The police report says it took

three teachers and a student tobreak up the fight.One of the people trying to

break up the fight told police hisback was injured. The schoolnurse gave him an ice pack.One of the girls told police

the other girl texted her thatmorning saying she and “hersquad” were going to jump herwhen she went into the bath-room.The girl says later the texting

student followed her into herclassroom, knocked her iPadout of her hand and hit her inthe back of her head. The victimsays she hit back and that’swhen the fight started.The second girl said the fight

started with the other girl got upin her face.The victim had two minor

lacerations, one between hereye and nose and the other onher right hand, and the othergirl said she had a headachecaused by having hit the wall.Both girls were suspended.

Like a deer in the headlightsA Loris area man says after

several break-ins into his shed,he screwed the door shut andput deer cameras throughouthis yard trying to catch whoeverwas responsible, according toan Horry County police report.This past week, the man says

he noticed that the door to hisshed was open, so he checkedhis cameras and found two peo-ple driving a car and one walk-ing down the driveway withwhat appeared to be a pry baras he headed toward the shed.The police report also says

the other man is shown walkingnear the shed before he gotback into the car and left.While police were investigat-

ing the incident, the victim’swife called to say that she wasbehind the vehicle that wasshown in the pictures and itwas traveling east on West BearGrass. Police went there andstopped the car. The officer saidhe was able to identify the sus-pects as the ones that wereshown on the video.The two men told police they

were simply driving around andhad no idea what was going on.Inside the car, police found

several tools including a prybar, bolt cutters, wire cutters, amachete with electrical tapewrapped around the handle, arevolver loaded with six shotsand a purse that belonged tothe woman. The only thing thatwas still missing was gas from agas can.Police also located three cell

phones, a pellet rifle andspoons with a white residue onthem.Both men were charged with

possession of burglary tools;possession of a pistol by certainpersons; third-degree burglary,second offense; breaking into amotor vehicle or tank; larcenyunder $2,000; and maliciousdamage to personal property.One of the men also had twocounts of simple larceny andtwo counts of receiving stolengoods.The second man also had

charges of second-degree non-violent burglary; and third-de-gree burglary, first offense, allaccording to Horry County jailrecords.Both men were still in jail

yesterday.

HTC is committed tosupporting its commu-nity. That’s why the company

is pleased to partner withthe American Red Cross tohost blood drives everyquarter where employeesare encouraged to donatein hopes of providing life-saving blood to the com-munity. On March 1,employees generouslygave 30 units, potentiallysaving as many as 90 livesbecause each unit has thepower to save three lives.“HTC has a long history

of community involve-ment. Employees regu-larly band together for acause and we supporttheir efforts and are sograteful for their dona-tions,” said Lisa Martin,marketing coordinator.

“Our mission to serve thecommunities in which welive and work is a corner-stone of our Cooperative’sheritage and culture. Ourcore value of communitycommitment carries onthrough our employees’donations to the commu-nities that have made oursuccess possible.”Since 1999, HTC em-

ployees have donatedmore than 2,600 units ofblood, potentially savingas many as 7,800 livesover the past 17 years. Formore information aboutHTC community outreachprograms, visit htcinc.net. For more information

about how to participatein the quarterly blooddrives held at HTC, pleasecontact Lisa Martin at(843) 369-8714.

HTC employees donate 30 units of blood to Red Cross

Senior Construction Worker, Jason Graham, was one of the HTC employees who partici-pated in the March Red Cross Blood Drive

52 years and counting

Four generations