Services set for Eugene Lockhart, co-owner of legendary Midtown Mall shop All Day Sunday

Services have been set for Eugene “Frank” Lockhart, co-owner of the legendary Midtown Mall shop All Day Sunday, who died at the age of 78 last week. The services will be held from noon to 3 p.m. on May 18 at the Lyric Theater, 440 East Ave. A reception will be held on site. The service will be in the style of his stores, Uhuru and All Day Sunday, including music, Garth Fagan dance and more, his family said.

Mr. Lockhart was a central figure in Rochester at a time when African-Americans began celebrating their heritage. In September 1968, Mr. Lockhart and his first wife, Joan Coles Howard, opened Uhuru, a shop named for the Swahili word for freedom, on Jefferson Avenue.

"It was born out of the hippie era, the Black Power era," Mr. Lockhart said in a November 2013 interview. "We were about diversity. There was a movement. There was electricity at that time."

Their daughter, Shelaine Peters, reminisced about the tiny shop in a 1997 Democrat and Chronicle piece. On Sunday afternoons the shop held jam sessions the couple called "The Black Experience," and the sidewalk in front, painted black and white to resemble a zebra skin, would fill with people playing drums, thumb pianos and percussion instruments.

The second Uhuru store opened in Midtown Mall a year later. Among the mix of art, books and jewelry sold at the stores were traditional African shirts — known as dashikis — like those that Lockhart wore to black pride rallies in the 1960s.

The Midtown store eventually moved upstairs in the mall and the more casual All Day Sunday — which sold trendy urban clothing, jewelry, posters and head shop gear — took its place in the first-floor corridor off the South Clinton Avenue entrance.

The smell of incense wafted in the air. "All Day Sunday — It's a Trip!" was the slogan said at the end of its commercials at that time.

All Day Sunday eventually moved to a more central part of Midtown, near the Clock of Nations.

By 1979, Mr. Lockhart and Joan Coles Howard divorced and the Uhuru stores closed, but All Day Sunday lived on, remaining in the mall even as most of the other shops closed or moved to the suburbs.

Mr. Lockhart married his second wife, Ruby, in 1986. Renowned choreographer Garth Fagan was the best man at Mr. Lockhart's second wedding. In a 1998 interview, Fagan credited the survival of his internationally acclaimed dance troupe to early and ongoing support from Rochesterians, including Gene Lockhart.

At All Day Sunday, the Lockharts held weekly classes for employees and encouraged employees who wanted to start their own businesses. They required employees to maintain good grades and funded about $65,000 in college scholarships, according to a 2002 Democrat and Chronicle story.

Black Santa

Eugene and Ruby Lockhart were known as outspoken small-business owners who promoted the needs of African-American citizens. They arranged to have African-American Santa Clauses greet shoppers at Midtown Mall during the holidays at a time when African-Americans had become the majority of the mall's business.

Mr. Lockhart served on Rochester's Downtown Enhancement District advisory committee. in 1998, Rochester Mayor William A. Johnson Jr. recognized Lockhart as one of 20 unsung heroes, who made contributions to the city's quality of life but whose work had been largely unrecognized.

All Day Sunday closed in 2002 so that the owners could retire.

"It's more than a store. They made it a community institution," said Johnson in a 2002 interview about the closing.

As recently as 2013, Mr. Lockhart described himself as being a "gym rat" during his retirement.

The Brighton resident was 78. He is survived by his children Shelaine Peters, Derek Lockhart and Mia Manzo; former wives Joan Howard and Ruby Lockhart; and several grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

“Because of his character and tendency to be outrageous, it seemed like everyone knew my father," said Peters. "Whenever I told other former Rochester folks where I was from, we would play the ‘do you know’ game and when it came to Frank, the answer was always ‘yes’ ... followed by a story of something he had said or done that left them smiling.”

TRACYS@Gannett.com

MEFINNERTY@Gannett.com

This story also contains reporting by freelance writer Alan Morrell.