Jan Leggett recently sent Tom Oncken some information about her father, and fellow TX Chapter member, Robert Harris. Jan has here a sincere collection of thoughts and she really put her heart into the write-up, She asked that we share them with club members.
ROBERT LLOYD HARRIS: May 19, 1949 – September 25, 2013
It is with great regret that I must notify members of AOMCI of the passing of a long-time member of the Texas Chapter, Robert Harris (“Bob” to some). In the time I knew Robert, he was a simple country boy who enjoyed our hobby and shared his collection of outboards and the related knowledge he possessed about them with anyone who cared to spend time talking with him about old outboard motors. After reading the article prepared by his daughter, Jan Leggett, I decided that it would be folly for me to compete with her words of love and loss. Accordingly, I have asked that our editor print Jan’s write-up here for all to see. We should all be so lucky to have our children remember us in this manner when we pass on. Thanks Jan, for sharing your feelings with us.
Tom Oncken
My Daddy
Robert Lloyd Harris was born on May 19, 1949, to parents, Arthur James Harris and Frances Viola Hope Harris. He was their second son. His older brother, Arthur James Harris Jr. passed away in 2000. He has one younger brother named William Carl Harris.
When Daddy was about two years old, he contracted measles. They settled in his left eye, and he was legally blind in that eye all of his life. In 1970, he married my mother, Beverly Gail Davenport. He was a diesel mechanic and was ASE certified. He was also GM certified, and he preferred to work on GM cars when he worked on cars. Daddy was also very artistic. Many people don’t know that about him. When I was born in 1975, my original birth certificate lists both my parents’ occupations as “leather workers”. They used to make everything imaginable out of leather, including purses, belts, key chains, bookmarks, moccasins, boots, and Bible covers. His Bible still has the cover on it that he made in the early 1970’s. My Daddy knew the Lord, and he had read his Bible from cover to cover many times. He was also very good at drawing. He used to draw all sorts of pictures for me, including unicorns and guys on motorcycles. He could draw anything that he could look at, and many things that only he saw in his imagination.
My daddy also liked to write, and he was very good at it. He wrote articles for the AOMCI magazine and the Texas Chapter newsletter from time to time. He used to have me proofread them for him before he would send them in. I remember the last time he had me do that for him was between 1990 and 1992.
My parents divorced when I was five years old. Several years later, he remarried and moved to Waxahachie. He and his wife at that time, Kim, worked at Tire Town, and he worked on boat motors in one of the buildings on the property there. My daddy loved Harley Davidson motorcycles, and he loved to fish. He loved Mexican food, and he loved hot peppers! He loved his Cadillac Sedan DeVille, and he loved his 1952 Cadillac wooden boat. He also loved his 1977 Monte Carlo that was butter yellow. Along with those things, my daddy loved to work on old boat motors, and he loved participating in activities with his dear friends from the Club. He always spoke fondly about O.D., Louis, Tom, Dave, and many, many others. It would make him so sad when he would hear of one’s passing. He would always keep me up on the latest stories of his adventures with his friends in the Club. I miss that so much! I used to go to swap meets with him when I was able to. I went to several wet meets with him and also went with him several times to George Jacobs’s shop. Daddy loved to refurbish those old motors and paint them up and put new decals on them… He was always showing me another gas tank he had painted, hanging from a bent coat-hanger in his back bedroom where it was drying.
After he and Kim divorced, he moved to Hubbard, Texas, and opened a shop there, which he called Outboard Outpost. His vision began to decline, and his arthritis got worse, so he closed that shop. My daddy wasn’t much of a “kid person”, in that he liked them after they got to be older than about 10, but there were two exceptions to that. The first one was me, and that’s a very good thing because I am his only child! I have six children. My oldest son, I named Robert Lloyd Harris II, after my daddy, because I was not married when he was born. Daddy still lived in Waxahachie at that time, so he did not get much of a chance to be around Bobby when he was little. My next son, I named James Robert, after my grandfather and Daddy. Some people say I don’t have much imagination about my kiddos’ names, but the truth of it was that I just wanted to keep Daddy’s name in there! I have always been very much a Daddy’s Girl! As the only child of a mechanic and a hairdresser, I can spin a wrench and I can do hair! Jimmy was definitely Pawpaw’s Boy! Jimmy’s first trip out of the house when he was a couple of weeks old was to go with Daddy and me to a wrecking yard in Waxahachie to find a motor for his Caddy. This was very shortly before Daddy moved to Hubbard. After Daddy opened Outboard Outpost, Jimmy and I were pretty much constant fixtures at the shop. Jimmy’s fourth word was “screwdriver”, believe it or not! Jimmy looks a lot like his Pawpaw, which doesn’t surprise me. Daddy marked him, for sure. I then had a set of twin girls named Meranda and Riannon. Daddy was so proud when they were born. Meranda looks a lot like Daddy and has ever since I brought them home from the hospital. Daddy had this cap that said “Grandfather of Twins!” on it, and he wore it constantly for months after they were born. Anyone who knew Daddy knows he was never without a cap. This was because his hair was very thin on top, even though much of the time he had a long ponytail in the back. After the twins were born, I brought another granddaughter into the world for him to be proud of. Her name was Jennifer. A few years later, little Gilbert came along. He loved his Pawpaw very much. So did all of the children, but Jimmy was especially close to him.
Daddy had this little Chihuahua named Stinker after he moved to Hubbard. He adored Stinker, and the feeling was mutual. He had rescued Stinker from an abusive situation, where the previous owners had beaten him and treated him very badly. Stinker thought the world of Daddy, and he would not let even me give Daddy hugs. He would snarl and draw his little lips back from his teeth. He would try SO hard to bark, but the people who had him before Daddy had his vocal chords cut, so he would just be able to throw his little head back and make a “chuffing” sound. I would laugh at him and tell him, “Stinker-man, you have to share Daddy with me!” Daddy and Stinker came here to live with me and my husband for a few months after he closed the shop in Hubbard. Stinker started to warm up to me at that time. He even let me clip his toenails once. Stinker was pretty old when Daddy got him, and sadly he passed away about a year before Daddy did. He had Stinker cremated and put into a pretty little box with his picture on the lid. Daddy had moved to Dawson by that time, and after he lost Stinker, he bought another little dog like him and named him Chico. Daddy and Chico lived in Dawson for the last few years.
Daddy was found by the groundskeeper at the apartments he lived in on September 27, 2013. He had passed away two nights before, at home. He had been battling with a cough for a long time, and he wouldn’t go to the doctor because he was still several months away from qualifying for Medicare. I’m not really sure what he died from because I could not afford to have an autopsy done, and there was no foul play suspected by my friend who works for the sheriff’s department who worked the scene. I had him cremated, and I have his and Stinker’s ashes in the room that they lived in when they lived here at my house. It is my sewing room now, but Daddy and Stinker-man are in there on top of a cedar wardrobe. I know they’re up in Heaven, and they’re not really there in those boxes, but I still go in there and talk to them. Somehow it makes me not miss them so much. Chico went to live with my mom, and he is very happy there. He has another little dog to play with, and he is still a lap-dog. Mom loves him almost as much as Daddy did. Mom and Daddy had been divorced since 1980, but they were very good friends after he moved to Hubbard in 2000 and until he passed away.
So Daddy is survived by his mother – Frances, his brother – Carl, me – Jan Leggett, and his six grandchildren, Bobby, Jimmy, Riannon, Meranda, Jenny, and Gilbert. He has gone home to His Lord, and he waits for us now in Heaven… I found this song about a month ago, and it says just what is on my heart about Daddy.
Jan Leggett
December 13, 2013
Dancing in the Sky
What does it look like in heaven?
Is it peaceful? Is it free like they say?
Does the sun shine bright forever?
Have your fears and your pain gone away?
Here on Earth it feels like everything
Good is missing
Since you left.
And here on Earth everything’s different,
There’s an emptiness.
I hope you’re dancing in the sky,
And I hope you’re singing in the angels’ choir.
I hope the angels know what they have.
I’ll bet it’s so nice up in heaven since you arrived.
Now tell me what do you do up in heaven,
Are your days filled with love and light?
Is there music, is there art and invention?
Tell me are you happy?
Are you more alive?
Cause here on earth it feels like everything
Good is missing
Since you left.
And here on Earth everything’s different,
There’s an emptiness.
I hope you’re dancing in the sky,
And I hope you’re singing in the angels’ choir.
I hope the angels know what they have.
I’ll bet it’s so nice up in heaven since you arrived.
