Robert "Wes" Hornback

Robert Wesley Hornback, known as Wes, was born November 21, 1934 in Oklahoma, OK. He was the son of Ida Leota Tuttle and Willard Self Hornback. He had one sister named Doris Annette Hornback. The family lived in Oklahoma City until Wes was 4 years old at which time they moved to Muskogee, OK. It was there where he met Rev. Finis A. Crutchfield of the Methodist church as a young teenager. Finis taught Wes to drive as Wes’ family did not own a car.

Wes graduated from Central High School in Muskogee and the following year went to Northeastern College in Tahlequah, OK. He then went to work for the old F.W. Woolworth Store in Muskogee as an assistant manager. From there Woolworth sent him to a store in St. Louis and a year later was sent to a store in Memphis, TN.

While attending a Methodist Youth Fellowship, at the Methodist Church in downtown Memphis, he met his wife Joyce Elizabeth Gwin and eight months later they were married on June 9, 1956 in Whitehave Methodist Church and they moved to St. Louis, MO.

On March 1st of the following year, Wes was called by the draft and was sent to Ft. Hood, TX and that was where their son Russell Craig Hornback was born in the old Scott & White Hospital.

After serving his two years at Ft. Hood, he again went back to work for F.W. Woolworth in Memphis where their daughter Julie Anne Hornback was born in the Methodist Hospital.

From Memphis, Wes was moved to DeQuin, IL, then to McComb, MS, Bogalusa, LA, then to Tulsa, OK.

In 1969, he left the F.W. Woolworth Stores and went to work for the Ben Franklin stores as a supervisor.

As you know, Sam Walton owned 23 Ben Franklin stores and Wes was asked to come to Bentonville, AR where he would be the supervisor of the “Walton Stores”. These stores were closed down and Wes was then asked to become a buyer for Wal-Mart.

After leaving Wal-Mart, he became a Vice President of several different stores and moved to Indianapolis, IN, Henderson, NC, Jackson, MS, and Portsmouth, OH.

Wes retired in 1994 and in 1996, we moved to Houston, TX where our son and his family lived and opened Parcel Plus shipping and mailing store on Cypresswood. It was a long road that he took, but it was always interesting and full of surprises.