Matriarch, businesswoman Rose Mehfoud Oley dies

Rose "Reba" Mehfoud Oley would open up her house every Thanksgiving and Christmas.

"We'd have 60 to 70 people in the house -- people I'd never seen before," recalled Mark A. Oley, the youngest of her seven children. "She would send us to go pick these people up. Her kindness reached beyond the city limits."

She would invite the homeless, people without their families for the holidays, old friends and people needing friends.

"She reached out to so many people," said Mark Oley, a pharmacist. "She touched so many lives."

Mrs. Oley, 87, the matriarch of the family, stranger to none, business owner and mother to more than her children, died Monday.

"I was raised an orphan, and I consider her my mother," said William "Bear" Jones, who has worked for the family for 40 years.

"She loved everyone. . . . Whenever she shopped for her family, she would buy me something. She always remembered my birthday."

Jones would take Mrs. Oley to play bingo or go to the bank. He would drop her and her friends off at the bus station to go to Atlantic City, N.J., a gambling capital, and pick them up upon return.

"We laughed, we joked, we carried on," Jones recalled. "She was always nice to me, and I always respected her. She gave me advice and I always took it."

What was the best advice? "How to laugh and have fun."

The widow of George A. Oley Jr., who died in 1971, Mrs. Oley raised the family by herself and continued to run the family businesses.

"She was the working mom before it was sexy to be the working mom," Mark Oley said. "She instilled in all of us the work ethic, determination through tough times -- and she did it with a smile on her face."

As a restaurant owner, she served countless free meals to people in need, he said. Mrs. Oley was the retired owner of Oley's Ritz, Oley's Lunch Box and the Guv'nors Restaurant, downtown and neighborhood diners in the era before fast foods.

Most recently, she was the smiling lady behind the candy counter at the Westbury Pharmacy, always reaching out to people.

"She is her spirit behind all the family businesses," he said of the Richmond-area companies that he and his brothers run.

Mark Oley runs Westwood Pharmacy, Faiz Oley is the owner of Westbury Pharmacy and Anthony Oley owns Lee Davis Pharmacy, Colonial Pharmacy and Cedarfield Pharmacy. George Oley, a dentist, runs Dr. George A. Oley and Associates.

All will open one hour late Thursday in honor of their mother, whose funeral Mass will be held that day at 11 a.m. at St. Anthony's Maronite Catholic Church, 4611 Sadler Road in Glen Allen. Burial will be in Mount Calvary Cemetery.

Other survivors include daughters Carolyn O. Bain, Jackie O. Dowdy and Lyla O. Wilby, 24 grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren.

Contact Carol Hazard at (804) 775-8023 or .