An Old Friend Passes

I just heard last evening from my old high school debate coach and dear friend, Willie Bilbrey, that John Roberts of Livingston passed away last Sunday. His funeral is today, February 9, 2011.

John was a young, twenty-seven year old lawyer when the father-figure in my life(my Grandfather Maxey) passed away back in January of 1964. John had liked my Granddad, so after his death, John took me under his wing for the next few years and, in many ways, he was like an older brother to me.

I will forever life be grateful for John' selfless interest in, and mentoring kindness that he lavished on this young sixteen year back then. Among other things, like me John loved to hunt and shoot guns,so we had something in common right off the bat. It didn't hurt that he came to own one of the original Ford Mustangs, which made John just that much cooler in my young eyes.

John used to take me hunting, and he also taught me to shoot a pistol and shoot trap with an exquisitely crafted twelve gauge Browning semi-auto shotgun that he owned. I can recall the delight I felt when under John's watchful tutelage I began to knock down clays with that gun, and how I would proudly favor my right shoulder bruised all to hell from the recoil of twenty, thirty or sometimes fifty rounds of twelve bore shot shells through the gun.

John Roberts as I knew him back then was always optimistic and always full of fun. He loved to talk, and to my teenage ears was uproariously funny when he would regale me with stories from when he was in high school (we had shared several of the same teachers). I recall literally laughing until I cried listening to John's stories.

I enjoyed every minute of John's company that we ever spent together.

In later life, after I graduated from college and left Livingston, John and I lost track of each other. During my adult life, I've been worse than most people I think at keeping in touch with old friends, and I consider that to be one of my greatest character flaws. (There are others.)

However, I understand that John went on to have two daughters (neither of whom I have ever met), and as time went by, his legal career blossomed. In the 70s, John become a General Sessions Judge in Livingston, and then later on in the 1990s he was appointed U.S. Attorney for the Middle Tennessee District by President Bill Clinton, a very noteworthy honor.

My Granddaddy Maxey, who had been practicing law in Livingston for years when John began his law practice there with his father, Hillard Roberts, thought highly of John as a young lawyer. I know he would have been delighted to know of John's high accomplishments in his legal career.

My condolences go out to John's family and to all who cared about him. The world was a better place with John in it, and he will be missed and remembered both by his family and friends, especially this friend.