The Life and Times of
Remell 'Redee' Cobb Hobbs
I was born on June 11, 1947 at 1627 Barton Street (the house has since been torn down). I was delivered, at home, by Dr. William Beckett who had an office on Florida Street. I was the third child of six born to the late Roosevelt and Gertrude Cobb.
Some of my earliest childhood memories are of the Vance Woods located at the foot of Person and South Third Street. This was before Southgate Shopping Center was built. My brother, Ovell used to catch and kill rabbits from the Vance Woods for my mother to cook for our dinner. At age eleven, my father died, and we started to receive a check from the government.
My three sisters, two brothers, mother and grandmother lived in a two-room house with the bathroom on the back porch. We had no electricity. I never wanted any classmates to follow me home to see where I lived. At Florida Street Elementary School sometimes, I was called “corn on the cob”, but I got used to it. I guess that was bullying back then. My grandmother raised us because my mother was often sick with mental problems. My grandmother signed a contract to get electricity and two rooms added to our house and the bathroom built into the house. Electricity was put into the house, but we never got the two rooms added. The contractor cheated my grandmother out of building the two rooms.
We walked to Florida Street Elementary School every day. My father went to Florida Elementary as well. It was an old school. Sometimes we had to climb over a train to get to school or walk the longer way around South Parkway if the train was moving. We got the free lunches given to under-privileged children. Many times, my teachers would buy me shoes and Easter outfits. They would take us to activities at Ellis Auditorium especially at Christmas time to get free toys.
In the 7th grade, I was glad to walk to George Washington Carver High School, a recently built high school. I did not want to go to Booker T. Washington because of their reputation and it was further away. At Carver, Mrs. Charlotte Polk encouraged me to join the Glee Club and had me to lead “Unto Thee Oh Lord” and a few other songs. I think many of our teachers were recently out of college and they were genuinely concerned and cared about our success. To mention a few - Mrs. Alene Lowe, Mrs. Betty Bland, Mr. Clifford Stockton, Mrs. Jacqueline Knight, Senora Juanita Truitt, and Mrs. Hattie Irving took an interest in me, or so I thought.
After graduation, I attended the then Memphis State University with a scholarship from The 35th Ward Civic Club. Riding the Memphis Area Transit Authority bus to classes, I would have to transfer. On one of my trips downtown, I saw Marilyn Campbell whose mother was a teacher at Carver. She asked me if I had ever tried to apply for a job at the telephone company. She heard that they were hiring. I got hired and only went to Memphis State for one year. I enjoyed working at the phone company and worked there for eleven years.
On December 1, 1967, my childhood sweetheart and I got married at the courthouse. Robert Wilson Woodrow Hobbs, a neighbor who lived across the street from me, and had taken a Spanish class at Carver with me, was home on leave from Fort Benning, GA. He had just finished a tour in Viet Nam. He had gotten drafted after attending Memphis State for one semester. He went to work at the U S Post Office for 34 years going up through the ranks to become Manager Distribution Operations.
He told me that I didn’t have to work after I asked him to vacuum the den floor one weekend. He said that was my job; that I didn’t have to work. So, I put him to the test and quit the telephone company the week Elvis Presley died in 1977. I stayed home for eleven years and enjoyed every minute of not having to work.
After our three sons were born, we finally had our daughter, RaDonna Elaine Hobbs. At the present, we have three granddaughters Lauryn Camille Hobbs - age 17, Gabrielle Christiana Hobbs – age 13, and Chloe Elise Remell Sykes – age 5.
Later, I went to work at J C Penney at The Mall of Memphis for eleven years. I worked in Housewares and The Gift Registry, where I met many couples.
Right before The Mall of Memphis closed, I went to work as a teller at Union Planters Bank, now Regions, where my supervisor was a fellow Carver classmate, Mrs. Sherlain Porter Rowe. I stayed almost three years and when Robert became ill and passed away on February 2, 2002, I quit work and came home for good.
I spent most of my time singing with The Western Regional Choir of Memphis, a choir organized of several churches in 1975, the year my mother passed. I went to many evening programs at different churches. I also attended and received a certificate from The Brewster Theological School of Religion.
Over the years, I was instrumental in organizing several reunions. Two were with the people of my old neighborhood bound on the east by South Third, on the north by South Parkway, on the south by Person and on the west by the I C Railroad called “The Sub”. The others were of the JC Penney associates and one with the Union Planters employees, Lamar Branch. I also helped to plan the 35th reunion of The Western Regional Choir of Memphis. I still keep in touch with many of my acquaintances to this day.
I got a chance to meet two of Robert’s army buddies, Charles Wilbert Hoops and Blair Bolling who served with him in Viet Nam. Hoops, who lives in Vista, CA, located me on the internet. He and his wife live near Temecula, CA and he spent time at Sylvester Scott’s home when The Carver Class of ’65 visited there in 2017. Hoops, Bolling and I all have birthdays in June and that was our incentive to decide to meet. We traveled to Falmouth, Massachusetts near Martha’s Vineyard where Bolling lives. They had not seen each other in 46 years. We stayed at Bolling’s home with his wife and they were wonderful hosts. Bolling was our tour guide as we took the ferry to Martha’s Vineyard. We had a very memorable time that I shall always remember. Hoops in Vista, CA has since passed, but I keep in touch with Bolling.
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