Family of Tommy Williams -- "The Bread Man" to customers at the Kroger off Eisenhower Parkway, honored him Thursday with a balloon release.
Williams died a year ago from lung cancer. He worked for Kroger for 43 years.
The store favorite was known for singing classics -- like Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher" or Otis Redding's "These Arms of Mine" -- in the bread aisle while helping customers.
"You can mostly hear him singing when you came through the door, you know he was in the store somewhere," said George Taylor, a Kroger customer. "Folks would stop, look around and listen."
Family and friends said if they were looking for Tommy, all they had to do was listen.
"When you come to the store, if you didn't see him all you had to do was listen to him," said Inez Williams, his wife. "You going to hear him singing on one of the aisles."
"I would come in; I would immediately look down the bread aisle. And if I did not see Tommy, I walked the store listening for him," said Marlene Hightower, his daughter.
The family said that Williams would fill all of their lives with the joy of song.
"The most important thing I miss is him singing," said Tommy Williams, Jr., his son. "He would greet me with a song every time that I would walk into his house and that's what I miss the most."