James Donald Apple, Sr.
James Donald “Jim” Apple, Sr. passed away peacefully on June 2, 2019 in Greenville, SC. He was born May 3, 1932 in Greensboro, NC, son of Hugh Clavon Apple Sr. from Caswell County, NC and Pearl Irene Parries Apple from Surry County, NC. Jim was an Army Combat Engineer and a combat veteran of the Korean War, having served with the 7th Cavalry Regiment, 1st Cavalry Division, as a rifleman and machine gunner in the early and desperate days of the Pusan Perimeter.
Jim was a graduate of the initial Mature Students – Hotel, Restaurant and Tourism program at the University of South Carolina and a successful motel operator from 1968 to 1982, operating Holiday Inns, the Sheraton Motor Inn, a Days Inn and a Ramada Inn in Manning, SC, as well as the Swamp Fox Campground in Florence, King of the Road Motor Inn in Cayce, SC and the Big Apple Inn in Darlington, SC. He served on the Florence Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, as Vice-Chairman of the Days Inns Franchise Advisory Committee, and Chairman of the South Carolina Travel Council. He later was a business operator in Columbia, SC before joining the SC Department of Social Services and playing a leading role in the development of the Electronic Benefit Program for Food Stamps.
After retirement, Jim enjoyed genealogical research and traveling to his family’s ancestral homes. He maintained contact with his surviving childhood friends and schoolmates and enjoyed the periodic gatherings with his Gillespie Park School Greensboro classmates from their 1938 first grade. He also enjoyed attending reunions of his Army Infantry and Combat Engineer Units.
Jim is survived by his wife Pamela Price Walker Apple of the home and step-son Stacy Walker of Campobello, SC, sons: James Donald “Don” Apple Jr. (Anita) Gastonia, NC, Jeffrey Clavon “Jeff” Apple, Cayce, SC, and William Michael “Mike” Apple and daughter Jayne Apple Blume, West Columbia, SC. Jim was blessed with four grandchildren: Christopher Blair Gibbs, Samantha Roberson, Alex Apple, James Ryan Blume and a great-grandson Jordan Gibbs. In addition to his parents, Jim was predeceased by a brother, Hugh C. Apple, Jr. and sisters, Gladys Apple Phoenix and Lois Apple Justice Gravley.
To honor Jim’s wishes, no memorial service is planned.
Our heartfelt love to you Pam! Jim was a really good man and we will, especially Novee, miss him. May God give you comfort in the days to come. Gwenn and Deborah
I’d like to extend my heartfelt condolences to you and your family on the loss of your husband, father and grandfather. When you see a person that has been able to achieve such a long and full life as James has, one may wonder why their loved one had to die at all. But God gives us his personal promise found in the Bible at Revelation 21:4, where he tells us that very soon he will do away with death and sickness from the Earth forever, and then he will resurrect James to perfect life here on a fully cleansed Earth being reunited with family and friends and being able to experience life as God meant it to be, which has always been God’s purpose for mankind and for his Earth.