Finney called a ‘best friend’ of cycling
Founded Memphis Hightailers
One of Charles Finney’s sons needed a Boy Scout patch, so he decided to help him by accompanying him on a bicycle trip from Memphis to New Orleans.
The long trip helped inspire Mr. Finney to found the Memphis Hightailers Bicycle Club a little more than 50 years ago and to add a few biking innovations.
“He designed a rearview mirror for eye glasses using a dentist’s mirror. He also made a dayglow orange Styrofoam bike helmet, carving it out of a foam pith helmet,” says one of his closest friends, Charles Tigrett.
Club members plan a bicycle procession Saturday to Memorial Park Cemetery as part of a farewell to the man who inspired more than 1,000 members to join the club in his lifetime.
Mr. Finney, 90, a hairstylist, died Wednesday after logging more than 175,000 miles over his lifetime as a bicyclist. “He was one of the best friends cycling ever had,” said Tigrett.
“Charlie’s always been passionate about making biking safer and better, and he was always ahead of his time,” said Tigrett.
Tigrett said in the club’s early years Mr. Finney beat the city to the punch by campaigning for the city to install bike lanes.
His daughter said Mr. Finney grew up in modest circumstances, one of nine children, during the Great Depression and worked to help support t he family. He was a Western Union e mploye e as a young man, delivering telegrams by bicycle. “That’s where he got his love for bikes,” she said.
One of Mr. Finney’s sons, Charles Finney Jr., said he was separated from his father as a baby, when his parents split. He did not meet his father again until he was 15 when he attended a school function. Although they hadn’t seen each other, they became very close. His father sent him to beautician’s school, but Finney said he preferred being outdoors and became a fireman. His father became barber to many firemen through the years.
“He was a wonderful person. He was a friend. He was concerned about my well-being after not being with me for all of those years,” said Finney.
Mr. Finney leaves his daughter, Charline, of Memphis; son Charles Finney Jr. of Covington; son Richard Finney of Memphis; a sister, Fraulein Stewart of Memphis; and two brothers, Gene Finney and David Finney of Memphis.
Visitation will be noon Saturday at Peebles West Funeral Chapel in Oakland, with services at 1 p. m. and burial at 2: 30 p. m. at Memorial Park Cemetery in Memphis. Peebles Fayette County Funeral Home and Cremation Center is in charge.