‘She fed the island’: Hilton Head ‘Fine Food’ legend Jody Caskey dies

Jody Caskey, the face of Hilton Head Island’s working class who operated its favorite greasy spoon for 20 years, died Friday.

Her daughter, Jamie Caskey, posted a photo on Facebook early Friday of the two of them, with the message: “This sweet angel just went to Heaven. I love you dearly, Mom.”

Caskey, who was 74, died at Coastal Carolina Hospital of a kidney-related illness, her daughter said.

Caskey and her former husband, Eric, ran Jody’s Fine Food off Pope Avenue from 1976 to 1996, serving her famous Garbage Burger and 20 gallons of sweet tea on crushed ice each day to throngs of workers, wheelers and dealers as the island exploded.

She was the sassy voice at the cash register, at the same time taking orders by phone.

“I knew everybody who came in the door,” Caskey once said. “I knew their children, their husbands, their parents. Whatever they had going on, sooner or later they’d tell me.”

Before cell phones, wives called Caskey with instructions for their husbands.

From her perch at the register, Caskey saw marriage proposals and business deals, tennis stars and lots of first responders, who always got a discount.

The man who slipped Caskey a note saying it was the best fish sandwich he’d ever had was “Broadway Joe” Namath.

Caskey later worked a cash register at David Martin’s Piggly Wiggly supermarket at Coligny Plaza.

Earlier this week, Jamie Caskey posted on Facebook that her mother was in the intensive care unit at Coastal Carolina Hospital with kidney problems and a MRSA infection. Caskey had been at the Ridgeland Nursing Center for the past five years with health issues, her daughter said, but the nursing center “gave her five years of life.”

She kept up with the world via Facebook.

Last September, she responded to a post about local panhandlers with this:

“Do you remember that little green file box that day by my register? Well, in it were unpaid tickets of customers that needed a little help! How can you say ‘no’ to someone who is hungry? I couldn’t! 99% paid me. The stubborn ones that I knew had the money, I collected. But if you were hungry, I would feed you!”

Reaction was swift Friday on Facebook and among friends.

“She fed the island,” said surfer Byron Sewell, who grew up in the era of Jody’s Fine Foods.

“She had the best hangover burger ever served on Hilton Head,” said Barry Ginn. “That cheeseburger and Coke knocked a hangover right out.”

Most Facebook posts were written to comfort Jamie Caskey.

“Your mom was such a kind and special soul with a wonderful sense of humor,” one person wrote. “And she was over the moon proud of you.”

Jamie Caskey said the family hopes to have a celebration of life event in mid-April.

David Lauderdale may be reached at LauderdaleColumn@gmail.com.

This story was originally published March 26, 2021 at 11:01 AM.