Clark Edsel Rollyson, age 87, of Barboursville, son of Roscoe B. and Bessie Lee Clark Rollyson, passed peacefully into Heaven on Thursday May 26, 2022, surrounded by his loving family. He was born December 5, 1934 and was preceded in death by his parents and his siblings Harold Rollyson, Dale Rollyson, Eldora Harshbarger and Betty Blevins. He is survived by his wife of 69 ½ years Bernice Hampton Rollyson and his children Jeffrey (Candy) Rollyson, Myra Rollyson (Tim) Yates, his grandchildren Jason (Michelle) Rollyson, Nate (Katie) Rollyson, Matthew (Karee) Yates, Allison Yates (Justin) Carroll, Kristin Riedel Thompson and Allyson Riedel Ciccolella, 15 great-grandchildren, a host of nieces and nephews and friend and loyal employee for over 42 years, Merrill Norman Scarberry.
Edsel, Eddie, Rolly or Tud, as many knew him, was an enterprising young man with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Not many months after graduating Barboursville High School, marrying his High School Sweetheart and working in the refrigeration department for the Borden’s Milk Company, he dreamed the dream of bringing soft serve ice cream treats and hot lunch sandwiches to the people of the Huntington area. A large used Borden’s delivery truck was purchased and was outfitted with two soft serve ice cream machines, a milkshake mixer, a refrigerated case to cool all the items needed to make cones, milkshakes, sundaes, banana splits, and a steam table for the hot sandwiches. A driver was hired to drive Bernice around to the route stops during the day and evenings while Edsel continued working at Borden’s. Edsel’s ingenuity was light years ahead of the Good Humor trucks, which sold only prepackaged frozen ice cream bars. The Frigid Palace, as the big blue truck was named, delighted the people with a made to order treat.
His next dream to materialize was the little block restaurant located at the Northern end of Huntington on Rt. 2, named the Jefmar, after his children. There was counter seating, several booths and car hops to take your order if you chose to stay in your vehicle. One December he decided to utilize empty lot space by selling Christmas trees. This would be his only one and done adventure, but it provided great amusement for the family as the story has been shared each year since. The little block restaurant grew over the years with multiple square foot additions added for kitchen and seating space, the car hops were replaced with two walk up windows and it was the base for the catering trucks that loaded each morning for breakfast and lunch stops and each evening for dinner stops to industrial plants located around Huntington. Decades before DoorDash, Grubhub or any other delivery service, Edsel was sending delivery personnel to houses near the restaurant with piping hot pizzas. That was the twist. Customers hadn’t actually ordered the pizzas, but he knew that once someone opened the door, smelled the deliciousness of the pizza and realized dinner was already prepared, pizzas would be sold. As the restaurant grew, the name changed to Rollyson’s and the box trucks were replaced with the silver California style catering trucks with the doors that opened on the sides and back where the warm sandwiches were held. In addition to the industrial sites around the area, the trucks began to provide many, many Jr. High and High School students with their favorite lunch items. During this time the wholesale sandwich business began to expand. Every Super America convenient store from below Lexington, KY to above Charleston, WV and many other C- stores, were serviced by this facet of the business. The catering business also expanded and a few other restaurant locations were also added to the enterprise. In the summer months several of the local swimming pool kitchens were manned by Rollyson employees. The Frigid Palace was retired from the road but still supplied ice cream treats as it sat permanently for many years at the entrance of Rotary Park. Always wanting to promote family fun, a Putt-Putt course was installed next to the Rt. 2 restaurant and was operated for many years.
In February of 1980, the Rollyson Car Wash era began with its first location in Huntington on Third Avenue and quickly expanded over the next several years to locations on Huntington’s West End, Rt. 60 East and Portsmouth, Ohio. Storage facilities were also added in the 80’s.
Over the years Edsel and Bernice employed hundreds of people in all their different businesses and for some of those employees it would be their first work experience. Along with a job experience, a stellar work ethic was instilled in them by their bosses who were leading by example.
Edsel was also flipping houses long before HGTV and DIY channels made it a popular thing to do. Gifted as an always forward and progressive thinker, Edsel was on the board and held office in many civic organizations in the area and Banc One Corporation.
He was a member of Oak Hill UBI Church in Lesage, WV where he served as a Sunday School Teacher and Trustee along with being a Choir Member and leading the congregational singing. He was active in all aspects of service to others in and out of his church setting. He would say that even with all the success he had in the business world, it is nothing compared to having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. 1 John 2:17 NLT And this world is fading away, along with everything that people crave. But anyone who does what pleases God will live forever.
Accepting Christ as your Savior and sharing with others how to do the same is what pleases God.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Hospice of Huntington, WV, PO Box 464, Huntington, WV 25709 or Oak Hill UBI Church, Oak Hill Road, Lesage, WV 25537.
Funeral services will be conducted at 1 p.m. Tuesday, May 31, 2022 at Lewis Memorial Baptist Church, by Pastor Jamie Jefferson and Dr. David Lemming. Burial will be in Oaklawn Memorial Park, Huntington. Visitation will be from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday prior to the service. Wallace Funeral Home, Barboursville, is assisting the family. Online condolences may be expressed to the family at www.timeformemory.com/wallace.
