Blessed is the man.....

"Blessed is the man who always fears the Lord..." Proverbs 28:14
John's father was born on a farm in Alabama, the 6th of seven children. (His ancestral family came "over the mountains" in the 1700's as part of the Robertson's who founded Nashville, except his family went south to the Tennessee River part of what became Alabama. They settled there when Alabama was still part of Indian land called Mississippi Territory.)
So this young 17 year old left home in the early 1900's leaving farm land to go to telegraphy school. After graduating he came to the Franklin area to work for the L&N Railroad. At this time, his oldest sister lived nearby.
When World War I started he joined the Navy and served as a telegrapher in the Navy. He was on a ship that went through the NEW Panama Canal in the 1917's. After the war, he came back to the railroad as before and was sent to work in the Edenwold area, now a memory of a place near Nashville. While working there, he started studying law and hoped to be a lawyer someday. He met a beautiful young lady locally and they soon married. They were both so good looking that it is said when they walked in down town Nashville, people would stop and stare at them, certain they were movie stars!
The depression came along, the couple had two boys to raise, and the law school fell by the wayside. He always kept the demeanor of solemnity and all his friends called him "Judge" all his life!
The oldest son was killed in World War II and these two never recovered from this death. I never met him until much later, as John was the younger brother and we met in 1950 and married in 1952. Family members have told me how they both changed so much after the older son's death.
I always called him "Grandad" and loved him very much. He was such a fine gentleman, such a man of his word, a "handshake" type of man!he worked for the L&N until he was 79 years old; just think working for a company for 62 years! He had worked there longer than anyone ever had there before. He also worked at the famous Union Station before it was closed as a rail road station and became a hotel. When he left there, his boss gave him a rolled up picture----it is a famous lithograph of the Union Station, drawn in 1900 by L.L. Gamble. We proudly display it in a frame made by John from some old
poplar from a grandparent's home.
Grandad only lived two years after he retired and spent those years walking over to our home and loving to be with the grandchildren.
He was very special and we all loved our "Grandad".