RALEIGH - Edwin Flythe, a Raleigh businessman who started a business that became a third-generation bicycle shop, died last week.

He was 94.

"He was just real gracious, real generous, real open," said his daughter-in-law Tootie Flythe.

Until falling recently into ill health, Flythe made a daily visit to the family business, Flythe Cyclery, at 424 W. Peace St.

"The store didn't open until 10, but he would get there about 8:30 and walk around the store, do laps around the store," Tootie Flythe said.

Flythe is survived by his wife of 70 years, Dot. The two met on a blind date in 1937.

"I'm going to miss him so much," she said. "He was such a wonderful husband and father."

Flythe was born Aug. 24, 1913, in Conway. He grew up on a farm with eight brothers and sisters in the Northampton County town, then graduated with a degree in English from Chowan College and later went to N.C. State.

Flythe served in the Army medical corps in the European theater during the World War II, said his son Skip Flythe, but he never told his family much about his war service. His wife recalled that Flythe served on a hospital train, and wrote home two or three times a week while in Europe.

After he returned to North Carolina, Flythe took parts of a sporting goods business his father-in-law owned on Hargett Street and opened Flythe Sales and Service on Salisbury Street. Initially, he ran a gunsmith and locksmith service and also sold lawn mowers and bicycles.

"Raleigh was so small ... he knew most of the businessmen downtown," Skip Flythe said. At Christmas, the elder Flythe would dress as Santa Claus and deliver bicycles to families.

Flythe was an avid outdoorsman and golfer.

"He was full of life," said longtime friend Owen Walker, who met Flythe around 1946.

"We hunted a good deal," Walker said, remembering the first duck the pair encountered on a trip to Mattamuskeet. "We'd never been duck hunting before," Walker said. "We shot off the shells in both of our guns. That duck is still flying, I think."

"We enjoyed Mattamuskeet more than anything. This is back in the old days ... the geese would darken the moon at night when they were flying," Walker said.

Flythe retired and turned over the business to his son in the early 1970s.

"He had tons of friends. Unfortunately, or fortunately, he outlived most all of them," said Skip Flythe.

Edwin Flythe was diagnosed with prostate cancer in the early 1990s, and he fought the disease as it recurred on and off for the last 15 years of his life.

Recently, he passed his time watching birds at feeders installed by his son. Skip Flythe said he thinks his father preferred it to television.

"He would call and say, 'My bird feeders are empty, you need to come fill them again,' " Tootie Flythe said.

Services will be held at 2 p.m today at Hayes Barton United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of Wake County, 1300 St. Mary's St., Fourth Floor, Raleigh, NC 27605.

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