By: Brittney Mangum
Reporter
“Call and check on your friends, and help your friends,” advised Robert Daugherty.
As he’s gotten older, Robert has seen the importance of friendship and has made sure to check on his friends as much as he can. While many of his friends have passed away as they’ve gotten older, he values the friendships he has made over the years.
As number four of five kids, Robert has some great memories of growing up in the Town of Stonewall.
“I was raised in the town houses in the community. I remember living in three different houses growing up,” remembered Robert. “I started school in 1949 and finished in 1961. We walked to school every day since we lived in town. I played all sports in school: football, baseball, basketball, and track.”
Although he originally tried to continue his education after graduating high school, it didn’t take long for him to decide that he should go ahead and start working.
“I went to JCJC for six weeks,” recalled Robert. “I didn’t have any money or a car, so I went to work at the cotton mill like everybody else did.”
Only a year after he graduated, he married the love of his life and started a beautiful life and family together.
“In 1962, I married Molly Kennedy. We were married for 53 years before she passed away,” expressed Robert. “We lived in three different company houses. When the company started selling the houses, we bought the house we were living in. We had one son and one daughter, and we have five grandkids and one great grandkid.”
Over the years, he has had different obstacles to overcome in life, but he would always just take whatever situation he was facing and do what he had to do. He has immense faith in God and has never questioned why he was dealing with specific things.
“I’m a cancer survivor for 20 years now,” declared Robert. “I never worried about it or asked why it happened to me. It never bothered me. I just said this is what it is and I would just have to deal with it. I never really had any problems with the treatments. I did get sick some, but I took 18 treatments over six months and haven’t had any trouble since then. I had the surgery and all; it was colon cancer.”
He was able to have his cancer detected early because he didn’t ignore the signs when something seemed off. After experiencing cancer himself, he warns others to make sure to get checked immediately if something doesn’t seem just right.
“If you see something that doesn’t look right, go to the doctor,” advised Robert. “I went to the doctor the first day I saw blood, and they did a scope so they could find what was wrong.”
One of the things he loves is history. His love of history allowed him to join in with the local historical society so that he could help preserve and share the history of Stonewall.
“I’ve been a member of the Stonewall Historical Society for 17 years,” informed Robert. “I like helping people find pictures of their old family and the history of Stonewall. I just had a lady from North Mississippi come in hunting something about her great ancestors. He was in the cotton mill somewhere in the 1890s, and we happened to find one paper that listed his name as being in there. I just like history. We didn’t ask questions when we were young; I didn’t ask my grandparents about how it was. Now, I realize I missed out on all of that, and history is great.”
Not only does he participate in the Stonewall Historical Society, but Robert also volunteers his time with Friends of Clarkco and does everything he can to help out the park and all of its events.
“I’m of member of Friends of Clarkco,” proclaimed Robert. “I like to help and try to help make it a better park where more people will come to it. I like splitting the firewood that we sell at the park, and I help with all the stuff we put on. All they have to do is ask me, and I’ll help them with whatever they need.”
While at home, he has a hobby that he enjoys doing: collecting hubcaps. He also enjoys getting older cars.
“I like to collect old car hub caps. I have about 250 of them on my shop right now,” stated Robert. “I started off collecting car tags of all the states, and they were hard to find. I looked in one of the old cars I had, and I had some hub caps, so I started collecting hub caps. I don’t want plastic hub caps; I want the old stainless steel hub caps that are on the old cars. I like old cars. I have a 1968 Dodge and a 1965 Mercury Comet. I just hauled home a 1979 Ford Ranchero.”
He doesn’t want to only stay home, however. Robert loves to travel and really enjoys going on different mountain hikes. He loves it enough that he has always gone a couple times each year and has even had to stay in different shelters overnight when hiking various trails.
“I’ve hiked all the 72 miles on the Appalachian Trail through the national park, and I’ve done all of the Appalachian Trail other than nine miles in Georgia,” declared Robert. “I make a list of what I want to do, and I’ll hike up to waterfalls. Sometimes it’s the same ones, but it’s some that I like hiking. I go to different places. I went three months ago where the Great Smoky Mountain Railroad is and rode the train two days. I rode it west one day and east the next day. When you’re by yourself, you have to do what you want to do. I’m 78 years old and can still do pretty well on the trail. A lot of my hiking I’ve done a little at a time. At times when my wife was living, she would put me out somewhere and pick me up the next day somewhere else. I’ve done that twice. They have shelters along the trail, so I’d stay in the shelter. I’ve stayed before when there was no one else there.”
After working hard throughout his life, Robert mainly focuses now on serving and helping others and just doing whatever makes him happy. No matter what happens, it can be guaranteed that he will do whatever he can to make others smile, check on all those he cares about, and enjoy his life and family as much as he possibly can.
