By William Croyle
Enquirer contributor

Bob Evans , 81, who has operated Bob's Five and Ten at 4001 Decoursey Pike, Latonia, since 1947. (Patrick Reddy/The Cincinnati Enquirer)

COVINGTON - With one-stop superstores becoming the norm, many owners of the once-popular five-and-dime stores have called it quits.

But that's not something 81-year-old Bob Evans will even talk about.

The owner of Bob's Variety Store at Decoursey Avenue and 40th Street has a long list of health problems, including osteoporosis, Parkinson's and heart disease. Yet he still works six days a week, just as he did when he opened the store in 1947.

IF YOU GO

What: Bob's Variety Store Where: 4001 Decoursey Avenue in Latonia When: Open Monday through Saturday, 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. Closed Sunday

"I can't walk far. I can't drive. There's not much I can do," said Evans. "I still make money at it, but mostly I do it to keep active."

His daughter Carol Graham said his doctor recently told him he should consider cutting back to five days a week.

"He laughed at her," said Graham. "He said, 'Yep, I considered it, but I'm not doing it.'"

For 6 1/2 hours Monday through Saturday, Evans sits on a duct-taped leather stool in his store with no air conditioning, surrounded by shelves of clothes, household goods, toiletries, school supplies, toys, candy and crafts. He reads the paper while waiting for his loyal customers to stop in and buy a 24-cent pack of gum or a $1.68 box of Kleenex, which Gail Menefee says would cost $2 at one of the grocery chains.

"We stop in all the time. He's always got what we need," said Menefee, who comes in with her mother-in-law on a regular basis. "Years ago, he was the 99-cent store before there were 99-cent stores. And his prices are still that low."

In 1938 at the age of 15, Evans quit Newport High School so he could work to support his family. He worked for a wholesaler in Cincinnati until 1940, then was a stock boy at Woolworth's in Covington - the same store his dad worked for as a salesman.

In 1943 he was drafted by the Army and served three years in the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.. When he came home in 1946, he married his girlfriend, Anna Mae. They opened the store a year later with the money he saved while in the Army, and they had the first of their three children in 1948.

Evans was called back to the Army for the Korean War in 1950. He worked 12 hours a day, seven days a week issuing ammunition to troops while his wife and mom ran the store back home.

He came home for good in 1952, but lost his wife just eight years later. Anna Mae died of cancer in 1960. She was only 32.

"She was wonderful," said Evans. "She was very helpful in what I wanted to do."

Evans never remarried and has continued to keep the store going with the help of his children and a granddaughter, who take turns driving him between his Erlanger home and work each day. He also gets a lot of help from his friend of more than 25 years, Evelyn Zink.

"I just don't know how he can keep going," said Zink, 73, who helps in the store each day and does the bookkeeping. "But he prefers it to sitting at home."

The store still looks like it did 57 years ago with hardwood floors, wooden shelves and product displays in the big picture windows that face the traffic on Decoursey.

Longtime customers note that the shelves are arranged just as they always had been.

Evans even still has an old sign in the front window that says "Bob's Five & Ten." But isn't it called "Bob's Variety Store?"

"Yeah, but the customers always called it Bob's Five & Ten, so that's why I got that sign," said Evans. "I don't care what they call it, as long as they keep coming in."

E-mail williamcroyle@yahoo.com