Carlton Ray Brooks Sr. sold his business to his son and retired in 2002.

Carlton Ray Brooks Sr. was so well known as manager of the Charlottesville Southern States Cooperative store that when he bought the local Southern States Petroleum distributorship in 1968, he had a ready-made market.

"He never had to advertise," said his son, Carlton R. "Tony" Brooks Jr. of Charlottesville. "All the agriculture people and businessmen knew Dad."

A funeral for Mr. Brooks will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. at Cherry Avenue Christian Church in Charlottesville, where he was a 45-year member and a trustee.

The 87-year-old Charlottesville resident, who died Thursday in a Charlottesville hospital, will be buried in Monticello Memory Gardens in Albemarle County.

Mr. Brooks sold gasoline, diesel fuel and heating oil to customers in Charlottesville and the counties of Fluvanna, Greene, Louisa and Orange.

"They were selling less than a million gallons a year when he bought the business. Dad took it to five million gallons a year," his son said. Mr. Brooks sold Southern States Petroleum to his son and retired in 2002.

The Elmont native and farm boy graduated from Henry Clay High School in Ashland in 1938. He graded eggs before joining Southern States Cooperative Inc. in Richmond.

From 1943 to 1946, he mapped southern France and Italy with the Army Air Corps during World War II. After the war, he resumed working for Southern States in Richmond and married Betty Wilson of Kentucky in 1947.

They soon moved to Warsaw, where he became manager of a Southern States store. In 1953, they moved to Charlottesville, where he managed a larger store and was known for "having one of the prettiest lawns in the city," his son said.

"Dad did things not because they were politically correct, but because they were correct. He led by example," his son said.

"My mom and dad didn't have to teach you to be a good person. You could watch them and learn how to be a good person. My father was in the Army Air Corps and my mother worked in a factory inspecting shells during the war. They put their country before themselves.

"When the war was over, they wanted to come home and build the best country they could."

In addition to his son, survivors include his wife of 61 years, Betty Wilson Brooks.