A longtime Charlotte entrepreneur has died at the age of 89.
Willie James Lines, the family patriarch and successful business owner behind Charles Chicken & Fish, passed away on Tuesday, April 30, 2024, at Presbyterian Harris Hospice.
Lines helped the famous restaurant, which started as a convenience store called the Big Apple, grow into what it is today.
The Charlotte native leaves behind a legacy of entrepreneurship and community ties that inspired his family and others to start their own businesses.
The beginning of Charlotte
Lynes was born on March 15, 1935, on Alexander Street in the First Ward neighborhood to Laura and Will Lynes. The family then moved to the city’s historic Brooklyn neighborhood and later to the Double Oaks neighborhood.
Ms. Lines attended Alexander Street School and Historic Second Ward High School, Charlotte’s first black school.
succeed in business
At a young age, Rhynes decided he wanted to work for himself and later went on to run several successful businesses in the 1960s and 1970s within the Oak Lawn, LaSalle, Beatties Ford Road, and Statesville Avenue corridors.
These include three restaurants: Soul Bowl I and II and Crazy Baby, two nightclubs: Star Lounge and Mr. Silks, two clothing stores, one record store, a laundromat, three grocery stores, and two billiard halls. The eaves were included.
Lines also owns a shopping center on South Tyrone Street that would house the Big Apple Southside and the Big Apple Laundromat.
Additionally, he owned property at the corner of Statesville Avenue and Badger Court. It housed the Big Apple State Building, home of the annual Labor Day Party, one of the biggest black parties on the Westside from the ’80s to his ’90s.
The Big Apple is a multi-location Charlotte restaurant now known as Mr. Charles Chicken & Fish that recently expanded to Uptown.
The restaurant’s famous name comes from the generosity of family friend Charles, who leased the original building on Statesville Avenue to the Lines family for free.
funeral arrangements
Lines’ funeral will be held on Saturday, May 4, 2024 at FBC-West.
The wake will begin at 11 a.m. and the funeral will begin at 12 p.m.
Burial will be in Oak Lawn Cemetery, 1615 Oak Lawn Avenue, Charlotte.
Following the burial, a meal prepared by the family will be held at the Family Life Center located at:
