100 facts for 100 years: a celebration of Lee Robertson, Part I
Lee Robertson ('50, '57) is
a WKU institution. Turning 100 years old on June 16, 2022, "Mr.
Western" still comes into the office almost every day and holds the
title of Special Assistant to the Vice President of Philanthropy &
Alumni Engagement.
His self-described "love affair" with WKU
began when he enrolled as a non-traditional student and World War II
Veteran in 1946. Through two degrees, one "retirement," several official
jobs and a 69-year (and counting!) marriage to the beautiful "Mama
Joyce," Robertson has continued to delight and inspire the WKU Family.
In honor of the first century of his life, we're pleased to present part
one of "100 facts for 100 years: a celebration of Lee Robertson."
The early years
1. Full name: June Lee Robertson
2. Also known as: J. Lee, Robby, the Calhoun Flash, Coach, Silver Lee, Grandad, Uncle Lee and Mr. Western
3. Birthdate: June 16, 1922
4. Age: 100 later this week!
5. Born to: Anna Hagan Robertson and Stirman Robertson
6. Hometown: Calhoun, Ky.
7. Delivered by: Dr. Haynes, Calhoun’s only M.D., who made a three-mile journey on a dirt road to the Robertson’s home
8. Born in: The family farmhouse that was home to Robertson’s parents, his two siblings and his dad’s parents
9. Farmhouse details: No electricity, central heat or indoor plumbing, with two coal and wood grates, a wood-burning kitchen stove, nighttime oil lamps and an outhouse
10. On the farm: The farm included a henhouse for adult hens to lay eggs and a chicken house for young chickens
11. School days: Attended Oak Grove School, a one-room school for seven years; eventually graduated from Calhoun High School after consolidation
12. Hardships: His father was disabled by a respiratory health problem caused by delivering tobacco to warehouses in Owensboro (20 miles each way) in bad weather; the family faced hardships of the Great Depression; and the farmhouse was flooded with four feet of water during the Great Flood of 1937.
13. Good times: Sunday dinners, family holidays, watermelon feasts, picnics in the woods, hunting hickory nuts, thrashing parties with big noon dinners and homemade ice cream, hunting (quail, rabbit, squirrel), ball, horseback riding, bicycle rides, swimming and playing on a grapevine swing at the Green River
14. Christmas memories: Christmas tree hunting with a big tree in the corner decorated with popcorn string and homemade ornaments; the smell of cedar in the house
15. Sad day: Giving up the family farm due to his father’s poor health; farm equipment, animals, corn and hay sold to settle a debt with Federal Land Bank
16. Home after the farm: a house—complete with indoor toilets, running water and electricity—on Main Street directly across from the high school in Calhoun
17. First job after helping on the farm: Cleaning and delivering groceries for Duke’s Grocery Store in Calhoun
18. Other family: Mother worked at a department store; brother worked at a drugstore; sister worked at the Chevrolet garage
19. High school graduation: 1941
20. Defining moment: Hearing on the radio of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor while riding in a car with a friend on Dec. 7, 1941
21. His thoughts: “I didn’t know what Pearl Harbor was, or where it was, or how it was.”
In the Army
22. Military: Drafted into the U.S. Army in August 1942
23. First duty station: Ft. Benjamin Harrison, Ind.
24. Overseas activity: New Guinea, Morotai and the Philippines
25. On life in the Army: “The Army has a way of regimenting you. Dang it, that’s good. The Army is good for you!”
26. Near-death experience in the Philippines: “When we flew up there in troop carriers, (the Japanese) were crawling in our area. There was one Japanese (soldier) with a hand grenade raised that was between me and the highway where the vehicles were, which silhouetted him easily. One of the guys that was under the tank with me fired on him, hit him and killed him. But he was getting ready to let that hand grenade fly loose in our area.”
27. Military awards: Five Bronze Arrowheads for beachhead landings in New Guinea and the Philippine Islands
28. On the end of the war: His group was sent by boat to Japan after the Japanese surrender, where they passed the USS Missouri on their way into Tokyo Bay.
29. Heading home: He boarded a ship in Tokyo on Dec. 1, 1945, arriving in San Diego on Dec. 15. From there he boarded a train and arrived at Ft. Knox on Dec. 23. He was discharged the next day and took a train to Owensboro followed by a bus to Calhoun, where he was reunited with his family on Christmas Eve.
30. In his words: “You could say we had a pretty good Christmas that year.”
At WKU as a student
31. Learning about the GI Bill: He was sitting on the front porch of his parents’ home in Calhoun on a Sunday afternoon in the summer of 1946 when a friend stopped by and said, “Let’s go to college on the G.I. Bill!” Lee replied, “Okay, let’s go. . . where is one?”
32. About attending college: “I had never thought of that. When I graduated from high school, people didn’t go to college. In our class of 32 people, one person went to college.”
33. On the GI Bill: “The GI Bill was the greatest thing that ever happened. It took college away from the elite select few and into the masses. It changed the whole daggum world for the better.”
34. Enrolling: Enrolled in Bowling Green Business University, a predecessor of the Gordon Ford College of Business at WKU.
35. Baseball: Recruited to play baseball for Morgantown; during a game, Coach E.A. Diddle saw Lee pitch and asked him to come to Western and play on the baseball team
36. Western beginnings: Enrolled in January 1948
37. The first game: Coach Diddle said, “We are going to start Robby (Robertson) today. He is little, but he is loud.”
38. Favorite memory of Coach Diddle: “There were many, and some of them made him look like he was dumb, but he wasn’t. My memories of the things he said and did are worth a fortune. When he and L.T. Smith were in western Kentucky recruiting, Mr. Smith knew a place that made some excellent homemade apple pie. Mr. Smith said, ‘I want some homemade pie à la mode.’ And Mr. Diddle said, ‘Give me the same thing, and I want some ice cream on mine.’ Mr. Diddle liked the pie so well that he ordered one to bring home, and they asked him if he wanted to cut it in six pieces or four. He said, ‘Cut it in four pieces—there’s no way I can eat six pieces of pie.’”
39. Baseball career: Lettered for three years
40. Student life: Lived off campus at Raybould’s Boarding House and enjoyed the coed campus activities.
41. Campus rules: Residence halls had curfews and Lee once had a goodnight kiss interrupted when he returned a date home to McLean Hall and had the door slammed in his face by a residence hall director
42. Academics: He said he was “more athlete than student” but did what he had to do to succeed in the classroom with “average grades.”
43. WKU degree: Bachelor of Science in Physical Education with minors in Biology and English, 1950
Early career and marriage
44. Early career aspirations: “What I decided, somewhere along the line, was that I’d like to coach,” an interest he attributed to Coach E.A. Diddle.
45. First job after college: Coach at Park City High School with $200 a month salary
46. After that: Went back home to Calhoun in the summer of 1951 and took a job at an airplane factory in Evansville, Ind., making wings for aircraft
47. Defining moment: Met a beautiful young lady in the summer of 1951 who turned out to be his neighbor, Betty Joyce Bennett, who had grown up while he was in the war and off at college. As there was a 10-year age difference in the two, they had never come into close contact before.
48. In her words: “I had gone to college at Murray and came home in the spring. I was in the backyard having washed all my clothes from college and hanging them on the line, as we did then, and this car drove up in the drive and he said, ‘Hey! You want to go to Park City with me to pick up my clothes?’ Well, it was Lee.”
49. What came next: The two became a couple, and Joyce transferred to Kentucky Wesleyan to be closer to Lee who was in Livermore. They were engaged by December 1952.
50. Next job: Coach and Teacher at Livermore High School, where he taught for five years and was appointed Principal
51. Marriage: Married Betty Joyce (now known to all as Mama Joyce) in Calhoun on April 2, 1953
52. What he remembers about his wedding day: “Before the wedding, I was teaching and coaching at Livermore. We had a PE class and an outdoor basketball goal at one end. They were afraid to rough it up because they were afraid to hurt the old coach before my wedding at 4:00. The Chairman of the Board at Barren County Schools, Park City Principal and little Woody Gardner all made the trek to Calhoun. I have pictures of us all standing outside of the Calhoun Methodist Church.”
53. What he loves most about Mama Joyce: “Everything! There’re not many women that would have moved as much as her for a husband’s job. She is a good Christian woman, has been a great mother and unbelievably great wife and is just a beautiful woman. She managed all the family. She made everything work for the entire family always.”
54. Next degree: Completed Master of Arts in Education at WKU in 1957.
55. Next job: Offered position as Assistant Superintendent of Schools in Barren County, Ky., in 1957, where he served one year before being promoted to Superintendent, where he served from 1958-1960.
56. Defining moment: A call from then-WKU President Kelly Thompson who asked him to lead Alumni Relations and Placement Services
To be continued...
Robertson's friends and family can visit wku.edu/chf/robertson to leave well wishes or make a gift to the Lee Robertson Scholarship in honor of his 100th birthday.
Compiled by Carol Cummings (’92), June 15, 2022, with sources credited below
Sources:
Deppel, L. (2016). “‘Just old Lee’ dedicates himself to WKU.” WKU Herald.
Harrison, B. (2010). “Extra questions with Lee Robertson.” WKU Herald.
Hines, K. and Calhoun, G. (2010). "Interview with J. Lee Robertson." Personal interview.
Lich, A.C. (2021). "Oral History: J. Lee Robertson."
Neidell, K. (2022). Personal interview.
Robertson, J.L. (Year unknown) "J. Lee Robertson Memoir."
Payne, D.P. (2021) “‘I just wanted to be at Western’: Lee Robertson reflects on his time on the Hill.” WKU Herald.
Williams, K. (2019). “Mr. Western.” WKU Herald.