Editor's note 2/29/24

Several at the graveside service said they were surprised at the size of the crowd, 50 or so, that assembled at Oak Ridge Cemetery that sunny morning last week. They didn't know "Cowboy" Bob McClure, who was 68 when he died Feb. 12, had so many friends. I knew him as a neighbor who would patrol the block and the park, a loner looking out for trouble or for people he could help with yard work. He was a window washer by trade, but the occupation he talked about was walking the mile to visit the Oak Ridge grave of his wife, Bobbie Jean, who died in 2002. He visited her almost daily, and lately when he could no longer walk there, friends would drive him to the cemetery. The hospice chaplain who conducted the service highlighted his work ethic, because during her visits with him he wanted to wash windows, even though he no longer could. She speculated that when Bob got to heaven the first thing he would do is ask what work needs done. "No," a neighbor whispered to me, "the first thing he'll do is go see Bobbie Jean." –Fletcher Farrar, editor