RALEIGH - No one knows what drove Willie "June" Watkins to work so hard all his life. Maybe it was because his mother picked cotton on the day he was born until labor pains forced her home.

Or possibly it was the sense of duty instilled in him as a youngster while toting a shoeshine box up and down Jones Street to help with household expenses after his father left him and his seven siblings with their mom.

Whatever his inspiration, that enterprising spirit led Watkins to build a business that drew people from all walks of life.

Governors, state legislators and everyday people turned to Watkins Shoe Shop on West Peace Street to tend to their old soles. In the process, the soft-spoken, big-hearted shoe repairman often mended their souls, too.

"You didn't only get your shoes fixed," said Betsy Bryant, a Raleigh resident and longtime friend. "He just made you feel better. He was a genuine man, a community man. He took care of family first, and community was just like a family for him."

That family has mourned in recent weeks. Watkins died Aug. 14 at Rex Hospital several weeks after his 81st birthday.

His surviving adult children are determined that their father's passing will not also mark the passing of an institution.

They plan to keep his shop open, news that came as relief to customers who dropped in recently to pay respects to a man who offered a bit of old-world craftsmanship in an age of disposable shoes.

"That would be the greatest tribute you could give him," said Doug Byrd, a customer for 28 years.

The smell of leather comes at you fast when you open the door of the shop Watkins founded in 1976. Inside, the wall is covered with posters of Michael Jordan, the basketball star admired by the shopkeeper for his can-do attitude.

"He was just happy to see him excel," Watkins' daughter Elaine said. "That was daddy's thing; he would just say, 'Do something with your life.'

"You know how the boys wear their pants hanging so low? My father would tell a total stranger, 'Son, pull your pants up.' He wanted them to look like somebody, be somebody. That was just my father."

Watkins was born on July 22, 1926, the third of eight children to Willie and Emma Watkins. As the oldest boy, he was thrust into providing for the family long before he finished high school.

"Dad grew up in a time when there wasn't equal opportunity for all, but he never expressed bitterness about it," his son Reggie said. "But he turned stumbling blocks into building blocks."

Watkins spent most of his life in Raleigh except for a short time in Jacksonville, Fla.

During World War II, he enlisted in the Navy at a time when African-Americans typically were limited to mess hall jobs. At the Naval base, Watkins not only honed his skills as a cook, he also excelled on the football field. But a broken leg landed the halfback in a full-body cast, and he received an honorable discharge

Not long after that, Watkins married Charlene Foreman, a lifelong partner who died in 2004. Their warm relationship and commitment to family served as a model for their four children.

"We had a loving, caring set of parents," daughter Elaine said.

Watkins built a two-story house for his family about two blocks from St. Augustine's College. With no car or truck, he ferried cinder blocks and other materials to the site in a large bread-basket on his bicycle.

Several years later, the resourceful Watkins built a house for his mother, too.

As an African-American man, Watkins had to overcome many obstacles to build his business. As a young husband and father, he worked two jobs -- early mornings at a creamery moving crates of milk from the refrigerated area to the loading dock, then at a white-owned shoe shop in Raleigh's Five Points where he only was allowed to shine shoes.

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