The founder and namesake of longtime Hall County business Jaemor Farms passed away Friday.
The market announced the passing of Jim Echols on their social media page Saturday morning. He was 87 years old.
According to Jaemor Farms' website, Echols built the current farm market location along Georgia 365 in 1981. Echols' grandson, Drew Echols, said the market was a vision of his grandfather.
"He had always been kind of retail-minded, selling his produce and things like that," Drew Echols said. "He clearly was a visionary about putting a retail location on that four-lane highway, knowing that one day that road was going to be really busy and highly traveled."
In addition to his work creating the farm market, Jim Echols was also a member of a number of boards and organizations in the Northeast Georgia area. He served as a Hall County Commissioner, a Federal Land Bank board member and in the Hall County Farm Bureau.
Drew Echols said his grandfather also made contributions that went beyond the world of agriculture.
"He was very involved in different missions, not just with his home church," Drew Echols said. "People would tell me 'your granddad did this for us' or 'did that for us.' He didn't go around telling the family what he had done for people, he just kind of did it."
Jim Echols and his wife had five children, 20 grandchildren and 39 great-grandchildren according to Saturday's post by Jaemor Farms. Drew Echols said his family has received an outpouring of support from the community.
He said it was that sense of community that drove his grandfather to build the business.
"He was in that business and started that business to be a service to humanity, and I've thought about that over and over and over again," Drew Echols said. "It was never really about him. It was more about just being a servant of God, but also serving his community and his customers well."
Echols' obituary from Whitfield Funeral Homes & Crematory, South Chapel says funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. Wednesday, December 27 at Enon Baptist Church.
