`He Loved People And They Loved Him' -- 88-Year-Old Store Clerk Was `Anchor' To Others

REDMOND

The 7-Eleven store at Northeast Bellevue-Redmond Road and 156th Avenue Northeast in Redmond is essentially like any other busy convenience store on any other busy thoroughfare.

Unless Chandler Pickering was there. The cheerful, talkative 88-year-old had a way with people that melted the corporate uniformity of the place into a friendly neighborhood shop.

"Everybody just absolutely loved him," store owner Mike Talajoor said yesterday. "He gave so much to the store and the neighborhood. In today's world, we need anchors like him, neighbors to move in the right direction and be positive."

Despite Pickering's cheer and endless stories of the good old days, a stranger would likely never guess that the happy old man behind the counter was a tireless community leader and volunteer, a man so beloved by the city that the mayor once proclaimed a day in honor of him and his wife.

Yet anyone who knew Pickering could have guessed at the void that would be left suddenly Tuesday night when he was struck and killed by a Jeep as he crossed busy West Lake Sammamish Parkway Northeast to get his mail - a road he remembered when it wasn't paved.

"He was just a wonderful citizen, active in politics, interested in what was going on," said former Redmond Mayor Doreen Marchione, who had named Aug. 6, 1988, "Myrtle and Chandler Pickering Day" in honor of the couple's 50th anniversary. His wife survives him.

"He was just a wonderful member of the community," Marchione said. "Just a wonderful, wonderful person."

The driver of the Jeep, a 40-year-old Bellevue woman, wasn't cited in the accident. Police were still investigating, but said excessive speed or alcohol wasn't involved.

Pickering certainly didn't need to man the graveyard shift three nights a week at the 7-Eleven, as he had for the past five years. He just was used to being busy.

He had been a teacher, principal, school superintendent and Boy Scout leader, had worked for the Red Cross, driven a cab, and sold cars, insurance and real estate, had survived 27 car accidents (many as a cabbie), and had eight children and more than two dozen grandchildren.

"Anybody who had any association with him came out a better, stronger person," Talajoor said. "Nobody would take advantage of him because he was so kind and he so much loved people, and they loved him."

Pickering's family ran the Gateway Grove resort on Lake Sammamish. When it became part of Idylwood Park and he moved across the street, Pickering became a fixture at the local parks office and served one term on the Redmond Parks Board.

"He was the parks department before there was a parks department," said 32-year parks-and-recreation director John Couch. "That park was kind of like a child of his in a way. He would bring a friendly smile, and he was always motivating us in some way. I'm truly going to miss him. I was proud, proud, proud to know him."

And anyone who regularly stopped in to see Pickering behind the counter at the 7-Eleven knew better than to try to rush out the door.

"I remember going in there and he'd talk your ear off," said Redmond police Officer Brian Coats. "He was just a very, very nice guy. It was hard to go in there without talking for half an hour."