Thacker Still Running Body Shop At 86
Chuck Thacker of Noel Body Shop and Towing shows no signs of slowing down at age 86.
He has been in business in Noel for 26 years. Before coming to Noel he lived and worked in several different places.
“I used to travel around about like a gypsy,” Thacker said. “You’d be surprised what you learn going different places.”
He learned body work from his brother, Bud Thacker, when he was a teenager. This led to an occupation he would return to throughout his lifetime.
In 1946, Thacker was in the Air Force for a short time, but he received a discharge because he was underage. In 1950, he married Shirley Collins, and shortly thereafter went to work in the lead mines in Picher, Okla. It was there that he opened his first body shop. After a stint working on a railroad and some time working in mines in New Mexico, Thacker opened another body shop in Baxter, Okla. Then he lived in Phoenix, Ariz., for 10 years, after which he moved to Los Angeles, where he had a body shop and also repossessed cars. In 1969 he moved to Seneca, Mo., where he built diesel trucks for K&K Coal Company. In 1990 he moved to Noel.
Thacker had two daughters and a son, all of whom have died in recent years. He taught his son, Eugene Thacker, to do body work, and Eugene worked at Noel Body Shop and Towing for a while. Thacker also taught his four grandsons to do body work, and one of them, Vince Maaele, has a body shop in Seneca and is teaching his
three sons the trade.
Carla Eslick, office manager at Noel Body Shop and Towing, said one of the highlights of Thacker’s day is his coffee break. Several friends come by in the morning to have coffee, and they might stay for two or three hours, she said.
“We have sometimes seven or eight people here in the morning shooting the breeze and drinking coffee,” Thacker said.
He said he has a lot of repeat customers at the shop.
“Usually you can’t find a place to park,” he said.
Eslick noted, “Monday is our busiest day. We do a pretty good business. We’re pretty busy most of the time.”
Thacker said the customers are his favorite part of the job.
“I’m doing two free jobs right now,” he said. “They’re little jobs, but they’re good people.”
Asked why he keeps working, he replied, “I like doing this. I get here at 6:30 or 7 every morning and I leave at 10:30 or 11 at night. Most people don’t think I’m 86 — but I am. I put in a lot of hours.”
He lives part of the time in a trailer on the property to keep an eye on the place, Eslick said.
Thacker has plans, but not for retirement any time soon. Right now he is working on renovating his shop.
“We’re redoing the place. I’m going to try to sell it,” he said. He has a piece of land where he wants to build a little building and work on antique cars, he said.
As for retirement, he has a simple answer: “Everybody says, ‘When are you going to retire?’ I say, ‘When the Lord wants me to.’”