This week's interesting personalities are a couple very
well known in Pound and the area, primarily because of
the athletic abilities of their seven sons. Charles B.
(Charlie) and Orlena Carter Roberts are residents of
South Fork of Pound who have lived there nearly all the
62 years they have been married.
Charlie was born the son of the late Aaron and Rebecca
Huff Roberts in a section called Gladeville, near Norton
on August 20, 1883. His parents were natives of Wise
County, but his mother died when Charlie was only about
three. His father then married Melinda Stidham and they
had two sons and two daughters.
Aaron brought the family to live on the very farm where
Charlie and Orlena live now about eighty years ago.
There Charlie grew up, helped on the farm, and received
most of his education in a one-room school on the Banner
farm nearby. When he was about twenty-three or
twenty-four he met Orlena E. Carter at Glamorgan. She
was the daughter of Pinkney Carter and Julia Addington
Carter. She had been born one of nine children on Rocky
Fork on September 3, 1890.
She and Charlie started courting and were married on
April 16, 1908 at the home of her parents. They lived
around Glamorgan where Charlie worked in lumbering until
they moved to Glady Fork. There their first son Guy was
born and then they moved up to the family farm.
Over the next several years were born six more sons,
Glenn, Harry, Ola, Darrel, Percy, and Wallace. Both Mr.
and Mrs. Roberts are tall and slender and the boys
inherited these physical characteristics - perfect for
playing basketball. That is just what the boys did. They
made Flat Gap High School famous. All seven boys played
and often they were the starters with no help from
others. Glenn went on to become All- American at Emory
and Henry where he was record scorer all his four years
(1,531 points). After the war (World War II) the boys
formed an independent basketball team that challenged
all corners.
Now they are all married, Guy to Mavis Fugate, Glenn to
Helen Keys, Harry to Virginia Riggs, Ola to Nadine
Jamison, Darrel to Doris Jones, Percy to Margaret
(Peggy) Dannemiller, and Wallace to Bobbie Dotson. They
have given Charlie and Orlena 29 grandchildren and 16
great-grandchildren and a lot of joy and pride.
All the seven boys work in the family business, "Roberts
Brothers Firestone Tire and Recapping”. Harry and Percy
have a partnership in Pound. Glenn owns a shop in Big
Stone and Norton, Guy is located in Corbin, Kentucky;
Darrel's is in Cumberland, Kentucky. Wallace has a shop
in Abingdon, and Ola is in Weber City.
Their fame and recognition as good businessmen is as
great in its way as basketball playing was in the sports
world. Mr. and Mrs. Roberts have much to be proud of
their fine family. "Poppa" and "Mommy" Roberts will soon
be 87 and 80 respectively, and we hope them many more
happy and healthy years.
The Stateline Press, July 9, 1970
The History of Pound Volume III: People of the Pound;
Edited by Grace B. Edwards and Brenda D. Salyers,
Published by The Historical Society of the Pound, 1996.
