Bob and I were couple when he was drafted and later killed.

I remember at his funeral, I couldn't bring myself to go up to the front with the family, and his dad came and got me from the back and had me come to the front with the family. I will never forget that. His dad was a very nice man. Bob's mom introduced me to people as her daughter-in-law, and that meant so much to me.

He was the love of my life and is still the love of my life today.

So, I lived on Oakdale Avenue and Bobby lived on Hollywood Avenue. Well, the first thing I can say is that no one ever threw a baseball harder than he did. He was an excellent all-around athlete but an amazing baseball player. Once, I saw him hit the hardest hit baseball ever. The player on the other team caught the ball, but that’s because the ball got to the player before he even knew the ball was coming. He just didn’t even see it coming to him. Bobby just looked at him and couldn’t believe he caught it. He just turned and walked back to the bench with a small grin on his face and a look on his face thinking to himself, ‘How did he catch that ball.’ It was the hardest ball I have ever seen hit. Bobby could have been a starting pitcher, but he was so afraid he was going to hit someone. I don’t know if you know it, but he was a great wrestler too. I think he was undefeated one year in wrestling and went to the finals I believe.

I think of him often. I often wonder where he would be today after going to LA if he wasn’t drafted and sent to Vietnam.

Well, I played baseball with Bobby for years. We played for the Perkiomen Twilight League. It was a league for years 18 and above. I said to our coach and manager, ‘You really have to see this kid play’. They started warming up and then Bobby was told to go full speed ahead and show what he really had. Well, he showed what he had, and after one hit and throw, the coach said, ‘Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me?’ I mean his throw from 3rd base to 1st was like a rocket. Soon after that, scouts were coming out, and the rest is history…he was off with the LA Dodgers and went to spring training.

What I would say about Bobby is that he was a ‘Diamond in Disguise’. Bob was a person and a player who didn’t know just how good he was. He just didn’t know.

I’m just getting emotional just thinking about it right now. I remember the day he was killed like it was yesterday. I learned he was killed while I was at working at McCoy’s in Norristown. A co-worker of mine went home for lunch, and came back and said you won’t believe it, someone from Methacton was killed in Vietnam. We went down the list of guys who we knew were over there and we got to Bobby’s name, and my co-worker said yes, Childress, that’s him. I was in just shock.

We were all neighbors on Hollywood Avenue. What I can say about Bobby is that he was a natural athlete. He was the whole package. He had the leadership qualities, the athleticism, and the intelligence. We lived in a time when all of the houses on the street were little but there could be 5-6 kids to a house. Every day was a day to just go outside and play and you instantly had a full team of kids to put together a game. Sports were so important to us all growing up.

It was a time when we would come out and play all day and wait for our parents to call us back in for lunch or dinner or whatever. It was a great childhood. We had so many kids on that street, so we always had something to do and someone to do it with.

Well first, what I can say is that Bobby was an extremely great athlete, an extremely great athlete! Bobby was a very pleasant guy. A very quiet guy. He always had the biggest smile. Bobby… how can I put this; he was just a genuinely nice person. A good man.

One memory that I have is that he loved The Rolling Stones. Whenever he was in the car, he would look for them on the radio. He loved listening to them.

I was so happy for him when he went to LA. It is just not that easy to get into the majors you know. I think of him frequently.

I remember the day he was killed like it was yesterday. I remember my husband at the time, coming home and telling me that Bobby was killed. We were just devastated, just devastated. It was such a shame, you know?

Living across the street from Bobby since he was 3 years old built a friendship for me that lasts a lifetime. Bobby, his brother Bruce, and Den were the closest thing to brothers that I had over the years growing up. With an average of 4-5 kids in almost every house on a block of over 50 houses his childhood always had the capacity to fill the field at the end of the block for a baseball or football game. Bobby’s natural skills for the games we played were amazing. We looked up to him as a role model.

The last time I talked with Bobby, we were sitting under a tree in my front yard after he returned from advanced infantry training two days before he was to report back for a flight to Vietnam. He wanted me to talk him out of going back. I think he knew it would be a one-way trip. That was the last time I saw him. We got the word of his death while we were in Army Bootcamp. It was a scary time for young men.