[UPDATE] Service for Irving Morris on Thursday

A visitation service for long-time Cheshire businessman Irving Morris, owner of Everybody's market, will be held Thursday at from 5 to 8 p.m.

Morris died Monday, just five days before his 86th birthday. His obituary on the funeral home site, notes he was born March 17, 1926. A posting on the Facebook page of Everybody's market states, "On behalf of the Everybody's Family, thank you for all of your kind words."

The message continues, "His many years of leadership and generosity will be greatly missed by family, friends, and community."

Condolence messages on the Alderson site include one from Cheshire Animal Control Officer April Leiler.

Condolence: I was so sorry to hear that Mr. Morris had passed away. He was a wonderful man and I will miss hearing that deep voice and his laugh. No one loved his pets more than he did and I loved to hear him talk about their latest antics and adventures. He found and adopted a wonderful dog when I first started working as the Cheshire Animal Control Officer and we were friends immediately! Whenever I had a difficult dog to catch, I would come down to the store and request a bone to wire to the back of the trap and was never turned away. I will miss him.

Morris is survived by his wife, one son and three daughters, said an employee who asked not to be named. He was pre-deceased by a son.

Morris had handed over the day-to-day operations of the market to his son Samuel Morris, the employee said, but the senior Morris had still visited the store several times a week.

The town's only independent grocery, Cheshire's Everybody's was founded in the 1970s and is the sole remaining location of what had been a 12-store chain in central Connecticut.