Obituary: Melvin Lee Ham
On Sunday morning June 2, 1929, Melvin Lee Ham was born to Calli Ham. As he grew to a young boy, his uncles began to call him “Shine” and the nickname stuck. He was known as Mr. Shine, Uncle Shine, and even Sun Shine and he loved all his nicknames. In the early years of his life Shine attended church at Webb Chapel UMC and attended school at Moss Hill. He graduated from Moss Hill in 1947, joined the Navy and was sent to Guam in the Philippine Islands. There he served as a Seabee and enjoyed playing on their softball team.
After spending three years, eleven months, and fourteen days in the Philippine Islands, he was discharged and came home in November of 1951. It was there that a courtship started with Miss Carol Evangeline Price leading to a marriage that lasted seventy-one years.
Shine started a career in sales with Pilot Life Insurance and later managed Pates Fine Furniture. If you were around him long, you would soon find out that he loved music and loved to sing bass. Through the encouragement of a pastor’s wife, he started The Harmony Quartet in 1966 that traveled many miles singing. A few years later he formed a male quartet, the Mellotones that also traveled. He loved sports and had a great impact on many young people in the community teaching and coaching the fundamentals of baseball. Shine was a longtime member of Falling Creek Golf Course where many Saturdays he could be found teeing it up with the Saturday morning crowd. But he especially loved playing with his daughter, two sons and son-in-law.
Shine became a member of the Lenoir County Shrine Club in March of 1981. He served as the president for two terms, rode with and was captain of the Motor Patrol, and served as Chaplain for the Sudan Temple for three terms. He was a lifetime member of the Cart Caravan. He was also an active member of Neuse Baptist Church for many years where he served as a Deacon and Sunday School teacher until his health would no longer allow him to attend.
Shine is survived by his loving wife Carol of seventy-one years, a daughter, Deborah (Mac), and son, Rev. Craig Ham (Marla). He is blessed with four granddaughters: Leigh Daughety Surcy, Kari Racobaldo (Rock), Jenni Bennett (Ryan), Sarah Ham (fiancé Caleb), and five great-grandchildren: Richie, Jackson, and Eliana Racobaldo, and Allie and Mattie Bennett. Surviving siblings are Jink Pate, Linda Webber and Marvin Croom.
Shine was preceded in death by his mother Callie I. Ham, his stepfather Richard B. Croom, a sister Myrtle Gagne, a son Michael Lee Ham, and a grandson Adam Ham and grandson-in-law Mike Surcy.
A visitation will be held on Monday, January 20, 2025, from 6:00 PM until 8:00 PM in the chapel at Howard-Carter Funeral Home.
Funeral service will be held Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at 11:00 AM with Rev. Craig Ham officiating. A private burial service will take place at a later time.
In lieu of flowers, gifts can be sent to Webbs Chapel UMC or the Shriners Cripple Children’s Hospital.
