Orlena and Charles Roberts 

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.