Remembering Raiford Troutman
Legendary Cabarrus businessman dies
By Michael Eury Special to the Independent Tribune Jan 16, 2018

Raiford Troutman, the resourceful local businessman whose name for many Cabarrus County residents has become synonymous with barbecue restaurants, pre-owned automobile sales, real estate, and home construction, died Saturday in Concord at age 92.

George Raeford (as an adult he changed the spelling of his middle name to “Raiford”) Troutman was born to Clyde and Mary Troutman in the Rimertown region of eastern Cabarrus County on August 24, 1925, during the economically ravaging years of the Great Depression. His earliest memories, as he related to me as his biographer for the 2015 book “The Raiford Troutman Story,” stretched back to age three, when his parents, at the time struggling to make ends meet as sharecroppers, and young Raiford lived in the county’s Watts Crossroad region in a dilapidated farmhouse that lacked heat or electricity. “I remember using a kerosene lamp and carrying it from room to room so I had light to see,” Mr. Troutman told me. “I warmed myself with heat from an open fireplace.”

As he grew into a sinewy farmboy, Raiford had little or no time for play. Being an only child, he was responsible for farm chores before and after school each day, fomenting an unshakable work ethic that would guide him throughout the rest of his life. During his youth Raiford’s maternal grandfather, Reverend T. C. Stallings, also engrained into the boy scripture lessons as the two toiled on the farm together. This sowed the seeds for Troutman’s deep spiritual faith that would become his cornerstone.

At age twelve, Raiford’s first professional foray was preordained when his uncle, Morris Stallings, introduced the boy to automobile detailing and repair. Accustomed to solitary pursuits from his earlier years of farm work, young Troutman easily lost himself in the fastidious chores of buffing and waxing cars. He also began driving around this time, his youthful exuberance fueling a lead-footed need for speed he never outgrew. Young Troutman started to be paid to help his uncle detail cars, his desire to work and earn an income outweighing his interest in most of his school subjects. He dropped out of school to work at age sixteen.

Going into business

In 1943, the Army rejected eighteen-year-old Raiford Troutman due to an injury he had sustained as a child. He began doing body work at the Flintrock Garage, adjacent to a Texaco service station located at 77 West Corban, at the intersection of Old Charlotte Highway (now Old Charlotte Road). The next year, he took over the detailing business, with “Troutman’s Paint & Body Shop” becoming the first of a long line of enterprises to bear Raiford’s surname.

The young businessman was on a fast track to success, revving beyond his original body shop to a Spring Street location called Troutman’s Used Cars. In 1955 he expanded the venture to Troutman Motors, assuming a large lot in downtown Concord at 43 North Church Street, where Wells Fargo Bank now sits. Troutman Motors relocated to 1510 Concord Parkway South in 1983 and can still be found there today.

Troutman the businessman was also Troutman the family man. He married Margene Weatherman on November 1, 1952, providing a mother to his eldest children, Blenda and Wayne, born to him during a short-lived marriage during his late teen years. The Troutman family grew with the births of daughter Karen and sons Keith and Gary, and as the family expanded, so did Raiford’s eye for commercial diversification, these two factions of his life often walking hand in hand.

From cars to homes

A home expansion project sparked Raiford’s idea to open a new business, and in 1958 he placed a “Troutman Homes” sign in the window of his Troutman Motors office. “Customers who had bought cars were coming by for me to build them a house,” Mr. Troutman told me. He soon began building homes and apartment complexes, never forgetting his own humble roots in the process. Troutman cleverly applied the philosophy of his old business to his new one by allowing home “trade-ins,” and also adjusted his apartments’ rent due dates to coincide with the local mills’ pay cycles.

Troutman initiated another enterprise in 1963 when his desire to cut the costs of feeding his family led him to open Troutman’s Barbecue. A friend, Joe Stegall, who was well known around town from working at the hotspot the Red Pig Barbecue, suggested to Raiford that he acquire the Little Pig Barbecue restaurant at 356 North Church Street in Concord. Troutman did, expanding and renaming the eatery. To this day, Troutman’s Barbecue is one of Concord’s most popular destinations, its on-site barbecue pit’s intoxicating billows of smoke luring diners each and every day.

Keeping his eye on the brisk business across North Church Street from Troutman’s Barbecue, Robert L. Burrage Jr.’s Cabarrus Creamery (its earlier location in what is now known as the Old Creamery and the home to the Independent Tribune and other businesses and organizations), Raiford saw another opportunity to expand his enterprises. In 1968 he opened Troutman’s Dairy Bar on land he purchased on Highway 29 (Concord Parkway), where the Parkway Plaza shopping center is today. At that site he also added Troutman’s Miniature Golf Course, designed by his own family after their visits to other putt-putt courses.

A family enterprise

Troutman’s family was fundamental in the growth and operations of their patriarch’s businesses, with each family member playing a role, from office clerical duties to car sales to waitressing to grounds keeping, soon being joined by the Troutman grandchildren — or “grandjewels,” as they’re called by Raiford and Margene. The varied businesses incorporated into Troutman Enterprises in 1976, with family members playing key roles as officers. In 1987, Troutman Insurance was added to the portfolio, and along the way satellite locations for the auto lots and restaurants were opened — all under the watchful eye and industrious executive management of Raiford Troutman, the remarkably savvy high school dropout whose iron-willed determination and intellectual curiosity helped him build a million-dollar empire.

As Troutman and his family aged, the diversification of the twentieth century became the divestment of the twenty-first century as various branches were closed and the company streamlined, without foregoing the Troutman brand as one of the most fabled success stories in Cabarrus County history.
Beyond the chopped barbecue plates and used cars of Troutman’s local legacy, Raiford Troutman was well known throughout the state and country. For decades he made professional connections through his involvement with the Carolinas Independent Automobile Dealers Association (CIADA) and the National Independent Automobile Dealers Association (NIADA), maintaining leadership roles and receiving awards from both, including NIADA’s National Quality Dealer of the Year Award in 1988.

God, family and business

Troutman was always quick to thank his family, workers, and customers for his success, although he gave his ultimate thanks to his Maker. “Put God first, family second, and business third,” he frequently said. Troutman often undertook missions, humbly and usually with no fanfare, to help those wherever a need arose. In Concord he was fundamental in the building of headquarters for such organizations as the Salvation Army (on Patterson Avenue) and the Serenity House, a treatment center for alcoholic men. A devout Baptist, he and his wife Margene have played important roles with the prosperity of Baptist churches, colleges, and church camps throughout the state, as well as with many other charities. Troutman was active with the North Carolina Baptist Convention and was the former state president of the North Carolina Baptist Men, receiving the latter organization’s Layman of the Year Award in 1993. He also served on numerous county and community boards. His lifetime of service inspired his pastor, Reverend Leon Hawks of Crosspointe Baptist Church, to remark of Troutman, “The Psalmist said it best in Psalm 37:23: ‘The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and delighteth in its way.’”

Having had the privilege of getting to know Raiford Troutman in his later years while researching and writing his biography, I am, like many others, in awe of his ascension from a meager farmboy to the epitome of the American dream. But what most impressed me about Mr. Troutman was the fact that he never forgot or outgrew his roots. He might have sat behind an executive desk, but he was always willing to do the dirty work…

…including picking up trash. It is widely known by his family, employees, and customers that Raiford Troutman would not tolerate a dirty parking lot or business environment. Many smiled as they watched him stooping over to snatch a stray Sundrop can or sandwich wrapper, an obsession he continued until very recently, when his body no longer allowed him to do so.

In a Facebook post on Sunday, the day after Raiford’s passing, Keith Troutman said of his father, “Heaven is gonna be a cleaner place when we all arrive with Dad there now picking up papers and trash.”