Joe Craddock

Joe Craddock , owner of South Belt area restaurant C & D Burger Shoppe, passed away May 1, 2013 after a long illness. He is survived by his wife, Intesar Craddock, his son Chad Craddock, his son David Craddock and wife Jill Craddock, his daughter Shannon Gries and husband Brian Gries, as well as his six grandchildren, Eleni (Lani) Craddock, Haley Craddock, Griffin Hall, Angeliki (Kiki) Craddock, Brent Hall and John David Craddock.
Joe was predeceased by his wife of many years, Helen Craddock, with whom he opened C & D Burger Shoppe over thirty years ago. He was a true American success story, and prided himself on working his way up to being an entrepreneur. He began his career as a clerk at 7-11, where Mrs. Baird's bread company delivered, and he then went to work for Mrs. Baird's, delivering to, among other places, local Dairy Queen restaurants. That led to him taking a job with Dairy Queen managing one of their stores. He went on to be district manager and then division manager for Dairy Queen, then bought 22 Dairy Queen franchise stores on the south side of Houston, including the ones on Fuqua and Scarsdale.
He eventually sold the Dairy Queen franchise stores, but, after the owner of the stores shuttered the Fuqua location, Joe came to an agreement with the owner to take over that location and make it into his own type of burger joint. Joe, Helen and their kids put a lot of sweat equity into remodeling the store and it opened in July of 1981. A couple of years later, Hurricane Alicia devastated the building, and the most memorable thing about that event was that regular customers literally walked up to the Burger Shoppe and began helping the family clear the debris, and Joe started people working the grill to feed all of the wonderful people who were helping.
Over the years, C & D became a waypoint for many teenagers in the community who worked for and were mentored by Joe. In addition, there are so many Burger Shoppe employees who have been with them so long that they are family. Chief among them is Debbie Vaughn, who has been managing the business while Joe was in the hospital. Additionally, we are so grateful for Maria, Liz, Susana, Renee, Regina, Lacey, Kelley, Jason and Kierra.
C & D has been one of the staples in the South Belt community for over 30 years and Joe has always been active in supporting the South Belt community. He formed so many friendships as a result and his family is so grateful to all of his friends for their love and support. His family will continue the Burger Shoppe going forward.
The Funeral Service celebrating Joe's life will be held at 2:00pm Saturday, May 4th, at Sagemont Church, 11300 South Sam Houston Parkway East, Houston, Texas 77089 with visitation one hour prior to the service, starting at 1:00pm.