Business

Rosco's friends happy store is back

Nancy Green shows the angel that survived fire.

By Bill Moss, Published: April 28, 2012

GREEN RIVER — Nancy Green is proud of her four children, who run Rosco's Six Oaks, and the grandchildren who also pitch in.

She is grateful for her bank, Mountain 1st, which loaned the money to rebuild the iconic Green River store and filling station after a fire burned it down in February 2011. She is thankful to live in a community that cared so much about the family business that they held a fundraiser and collected $40,000 to help out.

But what she wants to show a visitor above all is a white ceramic angel that sits on a high shelf behind the cash register.

"This is the angel that survived the fire," she says, dabbing at her eyes with a tissue. A Christian T-shirt was one of the only other things that survived the fire.It was devasting because the family had no fire insurance.

On Saturday, people from the area drove in their pickup trucks and cars to Green's Six Oaks, the official name of the store, though everyone knows it as Rosco's, after Nancy's late husband.

The family put on a celebration for the community, giving away hot dogs, chips, soft drinks, popcorn and ice cream. Beaming, and still clutching a little wad of tissue, Mrs. Green described her journey. Nancy Capps grew up in this area. She attended Flat Rock High School until her class moved to East Henderson High School the year it opened, in 1960. Rosco was from Fruitland, where they had a home after they married. But the store on the opposite side of the county, which they started in 1980, was their life, and it's still the life of the extended family today.

Her three girls and a boy run it — Jane Ward, Jan Ward, Joy Stepp and Ben Green. And now grandchildren have started working behind the counter and doing other jobs.

"They were raised in the store and now the grandchildren are being raised in the store," she said. She has 12 grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

After several banks turned her down, Mountain 1st said yes. The store cost around $390,000 to build.

"I signed the loan the day after Thanksgiving," she said. Just before the fire, "We were fixing to remodel," she said, "so God just remodeled big time for us."

The store opened April 12, 14 months to the day since the fire. It will be all stocked up and ready when the summer camps open.

"The counselors start coming in May and the camps start opening the first of June," she said. "They generate a lot of business in gas and fuel and the kids buying snacks and stuff."

The contract post office won't be back, she said, but the grill is still open next door, and the Green River library is only couple hundred yards away. The little nest of retail is the capital of the Green River-Tuxedo area, serving the farmers and other residents, and the campers from Green Cove, Mondamin, Greystone, Falling Creek, Glen Arden and Arrowhead.

"It's really been a hub of the community," Mrs. Green said.

Mrs. Green's granddaughter, 20-year-old Christina Ward, was making popcorn to give away. She works as a massage therapist in Flat Rock but like most of the family pulls a shift at the family business.

"It's been really good," she said of the community response. "They're so glad we're open. They're so glad we're back." With activity at Lake Summit and the camp season starting to crank up, "it's just in time," she added.

Rosco's is open 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. (9 p.m. in the summertime) six days a week. Closed on Sunday. The angel would want it that way.

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