About Us
Born April 25th, 1913 Leslie Everhart has been known and referred to as Kingfish by all but his wife for most all of his life which was a wondrous 95 years long. He passed away on June 21st, 2008. Rick Everhart, the owner of Kingfish's Antiques, is every bit the image of Kingfish himself.
Kingfish appreciated the value of a dollar as many of his generation did. He was a "businessman" to the day he died; not too long ago trying to sell his black & white TV to me, his granddaughter-in-law. He said. "Works good - gets three channels" (this included the UHF channel 25.) That's right - it had a dial, well two dials actually and an antenna of course. To be honest it was impressive. This TV was working from his basement you see. And he was offering it up for a mere $25. A good deal? Maybe. Turns out however, this TV was in fact his grandsons originally. Yes that would be Kingfish - selling his own grandsons TV to his grandsons wife. Bless his heart - it's not as though he needed the money. It was just his nature. That is one of my fondest recollections of Kingfish because it helps me remember that life is a gift and all the rest of the stuff - well it's just stuff.
Kingfish was a recycler before recycling was popular. At every visit he would offer me a bucket. They were good buckets he'd say. And yes, the cat litter buckets are good buckets though one can only use so many buckets. He also peddled apples. He dug graves and to hear him tell it could catch a skunk without being sprayed. Why would someone do that? One could sell skunks fur you see and that's our Kingfish. A railroad man for much of his life and a junkyard man for much more.
Some suggest his nickname has stuck because he's the image of a character named Kingfish from the 30s radio show Amos and Andy. Kingfish claimed - well, Kingfish actually never told us how he got his nickname. We shall never know. Maybe he didn't even know.
Nonetheless, Kingfish was our grandfather and we've come to believe in his values regarding character, community and honest trading as it was done a half century ago. We also very much enjoy finding stuff in the hope others would like to have it of course. So far you have surprised us.
That's the story how we came to be Kingfish's Antiques.
Stop by the store to see pictures of Kingfish as a baby along with the farmhouse in Lovettsville where he spent a major portion of his life.
