Saturday, August 30, 2008
Bert Leon Nichols, 87, a food broker, chef and owner of a coffee shop, died of congestive heart failure Aug. 27 at Doctors
Community Hospital in Lanham. He lived in Hyattsville. He and his father owned and operated Avondale Coffee Shop, near the
Brookland neighborhood of Washington, from 1960 to 1977. He then worked for the food broker W.H. Bryan until retiring in 1987.
Mr. Nichols was born in Clairton, Pa., and moved to Washington as a child. He graduated from McKinley Tech High School in
1939 and then worked at the family's G & N Grille near Union Station on Louisiana Avenue. He enlisted in the Army in 1943 and
served in Okinawa, Japan, near the end of World War II.
Upon his return, he worked again in the food-service industry until opening the coffee shop.
His marriages to Betty Dion and Betty Smith ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife, Joanne Nichols of Hyattsville; a daughter from his first marriage, Cheryl Nichols of Hyattsville; a son
from his second marriage, Keith Nichols of Columbus, Ohio; and four children from his third marriage, Tiffany Weaver, Jayson
Nichols and Byron Nichols, all of Baltimore, and Kelly Chandler of Killeen, Tex.; eight grandchildren; and a great-grandson.
-- Patricia Sullivan