Death of well known village greengrocer

CRUMLIN greengrocer Edward Anthony Henderson has died after a long fight against illness.

Known to his friends and customers as Ted, the 61-year-old had run a fruit and vegetable store in Crumlin village for 22 years.

Ted belonged to an endangered species of ever-smiling, larger than life characters.

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The old red van in which he collected his stock from the market in Belfast early in the morning used to be a familiar sight parked on the street outside the shop and Ted could often be seen discussing its position there with a passing traffic warden.

“I loved getting up at dawn to buy in my vegetables from the traders,” Ted used to say. “Sure I was used to the green grocery business. My mother Marie was in the trade with her own fruit and veg shop at North Street in Lurgan and I used to be her assistant when I was a lad growing up.”

In fact Henderson’s shop is still there at North Street with Ted’s brother Dessie behind the counter.

But Ted didn’t always stick to the family tradition of selling greens after he left St Peter’s Primary School and Lurgan Tech. He served his time as a barman and worked in bars around the town before becoming a bus driver.

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And it was when he was at the wheel of an Ulsterbus in Crumlin one day that he spotted the empty shop in Main Street and hit on the idea of going back to the vegetable business with his own place.

It was an instant success sandwiched between a home bakery and an opticians and Ted endeared himself to the villagers.

“Even if you didn’t want spuds or sprouts you called with Ted just the same to cheer yourself up,” recalls his friend Eddie Dixon, a retired Ford worker.

“We dropped in for the craic and to listen to his bad jokes.”

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Ted, who in his youth loved a game of snooker and was a roller skate champion in Lurgan, was buried in St Colman’s Cemetery after a funeral service in St Peter’s Chapel conducted by Monsignor Aidan Hamill.

He is survived by his wife Mary and his daughter Leanne, a schoolteacher who is his only child. He is also survived by his brothers John and Dessie. Another brother Gordon pre-deceased him.

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