Second worker at Denver King Soopers store dies
A 75-year-old worker at the King Soopers grocery store in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood died Saturday after contracting COVID-19 — the second worker at the store to die of the virus, according to the workers’ union.
James McKay had worked since 2006 as a courtesy clerk at the store at the intersection of East 9th Avenue and North Downing Street, where he helped customers and bagged groceries, said
Bridget Bartol, a spokeswoman for the United Food and Commercial Workers International Union Local 7.
Twelve employees at the store have tested positive for the virus, according to the union. Randy Narvaez, who worked at the store for more than 30 years, died May 17 after contracting the coronavirus. Other employees at the grocery store in Capitol Hill have said they fear coming to work, but need to take the risk of contracting COVID-19 to pay their bills.
State outbreak data from May 21 — the most current data available — shows that 45 King Soopers employees at three Colorado stores and the company’s bakery have tested positive for the virus.
McKay was a happy man who loved a good joke and helping the store’s customers, said Leonard Jackson, who worked at the store with McKay for more than a decade and attended Manual High School with him.
“He just seemed like he stayed happy all the time,” Jackson, 75, said. “He’d always be laughing and joking at work. He’d always say something crazy.”
The two men reconnected when they started working at the grocery store. They reminisced on high school hijinks, like trying to find someone who would buy them beer, Jackson said.
Their more recent activities were more calm, however, since both men were in their 70s. McKay had respiratory problems, Jackson said, and wore oxygen at work.
“We usually just sit around and talk and play dominoes,” Jackson said. “We were real good friends.”
Jackson stopped working at the
King Soopers in November, he said, and contact between him and McKay became less frequent. When the union called him to tell him of McKay’s death, Jackson was shocked and heartbroken.
Now, Jackson waits to hear if there will be a funeral for his friend and if he’ll be able to attend.
“Every time I look at his picture now I almost start crying,” Jackson said. “He was a good person.”