Some things in life you can be assured of, and you can be certain that God threw away the mold when he created J.F. Dunn Jr.
He was one of a kind if ever there was one of a kind.
“We had the blessing of having just one J.F.,” the Rev. Jay Coker told those who gathered Thursday at Lafayette Memorial Park to remember the retired owner of Dunn’s Nursery and Garden Shop along Skibo Road. “There’s simply no telling how many people had their lives blessed from the nursery.”
J.F. Dunn knew the plants, the shrubs and the trees, and you’ll find them in yards almost everywhere in this community and beyond.
“You gotta water ‘em,” he always would remind when the jobs were done.
And then in his swift gait, J.F. Dunn was off to another landscaping site. J.F. Dunn was not one to tarry, and you can be assured of that, too.
“We’ve serviced all of the fine people of Fayetteville,” Dunn said in June of 2022, when bringing the longtime family business to a close after 67 years. “Thousands and thousands and thousands, and from Raeford, Dunn, Eastover, Spring Lake and Lumberton. We’ve done a lot of commercial work for churches, restaurants, Fayetteville Publishing Co. and on Fort Bragg. Mainly, we sell service — our time and information — and we take care of our customers. Fayetteville gets a bad kick sometimes, but there are some wonderful people in this town.”
Seems like J.F. Dunn knew everybody in town, and everybody knew J.F. Dunn.
He followed in the footsteps of his late father, John Fairley Dunn, who was 55 when he opened the nursery on Skibo Road long before the roadway would later become a corridor of commercial retail stores and shopping centers.
“I got back from Fort Knox from the National Guard,” J.F. Dunn said in 2022 as he recalled how, in 1965, his late mother, Virginia Baucom Dunn, encouraged him to help his father at the nursery. “I was selling shoes downtown and my Mama sat me down one day and said, ‘We’d like you to go out and help your daddy.’ There was no traffic and just an old country store. The nursery was just in a little stucco building.”
He did and spent the ensuing 57 years at the nursery.
“I remember when my father died in 1975,” J.F. Dunn once told me. “I remember crying and wondering how I would run the business without him.”
But J.F. Dunn was a shrewd businessman, and there wasn’t much he couldn’t tell you about azaleas, camellias, roses, boxwoods, centipede sod and dogwood, River Birch, crepe myrtle, fruit and Japanese persimmon trees or whatever would best suit your own home or commercial landscape.
“This has been my entire life,” Dunn said in the final days of the nursery. “I’ve worked every Saturday and every holiday.”
He was struggling with health issues.
His once swift gait had slowed.
“It’s sad,” J.F. Dunn said about his decision to close the business. “I’m happy and I’m sad I’m doing it. But I knew one day I’d have to do it, and the day is here.”
‘Enter the gates’
J.F. Dunn spent his retirement days at the Rayconda home he loved and shared with his late wife, Barbara Allen Dunn, who died at age 74 on Dec. 18, 2021, and where the couple raised two daughters who adored their father. And he liked spending time at his North Myrtle Beach condominium, a good dinner steak and an afternoon cocktail of gin and tonic.
“A few days ago, we had another sad day,” the preacher said. “We heard someone say, ‘Well done, faithful servant. Enter the gates.’”
John Fairley Dunn Jr. died Aug. 23.
He was 81.
You saw the faces of old friends who came Thursday to bid farewell to J.F. Dunn Jr., where he was remembered for his dry wit, good humor and engaging personality along his life’s way. There was nothing pretentious about J.F. Dunn. He was who he was, and to know him was to like him.
The preacher would remind us about the man they came to know.
“Anyone can count the seeds in an apple,” the Rev. Coker said, “but only God can count the apples in the seed.”
Coker said he saw it only fitting in remembering J.F. Dunn.
“He was a faithful, honest and trusting friend” to so many, Coker prayed. “He was a gift of your grace, and we thank you for all that was good and faithful.”
Among those J.F. Dunn was faithful to was Clarence Johnson, who worked at the nursery as general manager from 2004 until its closing.
“He was humorous, stern and honest,” Johnson, 43, said. “He was hilarious to be around. But he was stern in his word. He was honest, and I learned a lot from him. I will miss his wisdom and knowledge to advise me.”
Johnson, clutching a red rose, placed his hand on J.F. Dunn’s coffin before leaving the cemetery.
Epilogue
For so many of us in this town, we see J.F. Dunn’s life’s work in our yards. I see the azaleas he planted for my mama, and their colorful blooms each spring. I see the River Birch trees he planted, which bring me so much joy.
I see him breaking into tears when Dundee the cat went missing and J.F. Dunn pleaded with me to write a column to help find Dundee, who for more than 15 years was as much a part of Dunn’s Nursery and Garden Shop as J.F. Dunn himself. Dundee showed up two days later.
“Well,” he called with the good news, “my damn cat’s back.”
J.F. Dunn had a tender heart for Dundee, and his beloved cat, Cutie Pie, too.
He was one of a kind, and those who came to know J.F. Dunn will tell you. And some things in life you can be assured of, and you can be assured that God threw away the mold when he created J.F. Dunn Jr.
Bill Kirby Jr. can be reached at billkirby49@gmail.com or 910-624-1961.
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