His first name was Manie, but nobody called him that. His middle name was Leroy, and many called him that. But his cab was “Number 3,” and just about everybody, years ago in Rock Hill, who needed a ride called out that.
Blue Bird Taxi Co., car Number 3, owner and driver for more than 40 years, that was Manie Leroy Dye. Number 3 in a Chrysler Imperial or Newport, a Plymouth Fury or Savoy, or a Dodge Polara or Royal, fins shining, fixed up until it purred.
Dye died a few days ago at 86, but the white-painted Blue Bird cabs with the blue stripe etched down the side and the sign with the hand-painted blue birds live in memory forever.
Leroy Dye owned and operated the company from 1948 to 1991, always with a taxi stand on Black Street in what once was the black business district. The cab stand first was east of Wilson Street, then in the building smack on the northwest corner of Wilson and Black streets. It was a staple of the bustle of commerce that had a pool hall,6 places to eat and more, the cab stand a central gathering place for so many for so long. The cars were always Dodges and Plymouths and Chryslers, bought second-hand and re-tooled. Painted white and striped blue, the bird put on, then sent out on the road.
“He knew every street in Rock Hill, about every house in Rock Hill and just about every person in Rock Hill, black or white,” said Elvenia Dye, Leroy Dye's wife of 66 years. “Leroy knew people, where they wanted to go, and he got them there. They sure knew Number 3.”
For years after World War II, Dye's Blue Bird cab was the sole black-owned taxi business in the city. In the old days during segregation, Blue Bird cabs were a vital source of transportation — and, at times, employment — for the city's blacks.
Dye was an American success story: He started out with a car or two and worked to build his business through customer service. And Dye made it clear to all his drivers that his business was a community business for all people, and Blue Bird cabs would ferry any person of any color anywhere. Sometimes, even if that person didn't have the money to pay.
“I remember one time, Leroy pulled us all together and said straight out, ‘We give service to any man or woman, widows or orphans, black or white, rich or poor,” said Clarence “Spank” Beckham, who drove a Blue Bird cab for more than 25 years. “Leroy was as generous a man as any in Rock Hill.”
Murrie Smith drove a Blue Bird cab for many years, working mostly at night after his regular job. Like many men Dye gave jobs to, Smith worked one shift in a mill and hustled for fares those other times when a dollar could be made.
“Leroy was as generous a man as there was, always willing to help out somebody,” Smith said. “He owned the business, but he always drove some. He had loyal customers, black and white. All people loved Leroy.”
Dye was a church-going singer in the choir, and in that bustling cab stand with its non-stop checker games on not one but two boards, the chatter would be loud among the men who would hang around and shoot the breeze. But there was no cussing in the Blue Bird stand. Sometimes there would be gospel songs filling the air, with Dye himself starting it off. Blue Bird Taxi Co. wasn't just a business that gave rides: It gave jobs, service and fellowship for decades.
Leroy Dye was a man who “gave others a chance, was always generous with his time and his spirit,” said his grandson, the Rev. Donnie Dye. At 2 p.m. today, Donnie Dye will give the eulogy for his grandfather and tell a packed church how kids in Rock Hill loved to ride in the white cab with the blue stripe and the blue bird on it because that meant candy or cookies.
“Everybody knew my grandfather,” Donnie Dye said. “There was only one Leroy Dye. The cab man. Number 3.”
Andrew Dys 803-329-4065 adys@heraldonline.com
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