Pennington Research Association
Pennington Family Genealogical Information - Material - Events
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Pennington Research AssociationPennington Family Genealogical Information - Material - Events
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This page is in tribute to Bobby E. Pennington, Sr., who died on June 12, 2002. The first section is an introduction and is followed by a short biography of Bobby written by his son, Paul L. Pennington, Ph D. It Can Be Done!By Gene Pennington, Research DirectorWhen Bobby Pennington died on June 12, 2002, the Pennington Research Association lost a great member. While I never had the good fortune to meet Bobby in person, I did have the honor of working with him these past few years. The first time I talked to Bobby, I was very impressed with his attitude of “Let’s do it!” and his way of telling me to “be reasonable” in setting the goals for the newly created Research Committee. I listened carefully to what he said and read his e-mail messages even more carefully. He was truly a remarkable man who understood how the PRA could be a bridge between the old and the new world of genealogical research. He knew both ways had to continue to ensure the success of genealogy research. Bobby was directly involved in the two most important projects the PRA has ever created. Before I became the Research Director, several persons, including Bobby, John French and Jim Pennington, were collecting and inputting a large volume of family history information into a genealogy software program. I later learned that Bobby was one of the earliest supporters and contributors to the project. This project eventually became the John French Master File. Bobby was the creator of another major project known as the PRA Index Project. When he explained it to me for the first time, I couldn’t believe my ears! What an incredible project! It seems that Bobby had scanned EVERY page of BOTH the Pennington Cousins’ Courier AND the Pennington Pedigrees and saved them as computer files. As if that was not enough, he then scanned and created an index for EVERY surname in ALL of those Cousins’ Couriers and Pedigrees! He continued to explain to me that he wasn’t satisfied with just having scanned all those pages and created all those indexes. He told me he wanted a way to search a name against those indexes and then determine where and in which publication the name was printed! So, he created, from scratch, a computer program to do just that! Unbelievable! Well, needless to say, I started jumping up and down with excitement. Here was a man who had, on his own, and at his own expense, created an indexing program that allowed you to input a name and have it tell you WHICH publication and on which page, a name appeared! Incredible! Now, add to this all the time and energy Bobby devoted to his genealogical research and to being the Group Leader for Group 6, and you have some idea of why I so respected this man. As time went on, I would often call Bobby to discuss some of the many challenges that faced us as we moved forward. He was always a voice of calm and reason. I tried several times to recruit him to take on other jobs in the Pennington Research Association but he was very happy being the Group Leader for Group 6 and being responsible for his PRA Index Project. When Bobby recovered from his illness and returned home last year, I waited a few days before I called him. I asked, “How are you doing?” Bobby, in his usual calm voice, replied, “Good, how are you and your family?” It struck me that here was a most unusual man. Bobby, who had just fought death for so many months, was more concerned about me than telling me about his problems. When I learned that Bobby had died, I was sad and full of despair. What a tragedy that Bobby was taken from us. How sad his family must be at that moment. Then, I thought about Bobby’s kindness, his great advice and his positive attitude. I began to feel somewhat better. But then I thought, “Wait, there was still so much for him to do! I needed more of his help and guidance to solve some of the puzzles facing the Research Committee.” I mean, after all, he and I were working on ways to make his PRA Index Project available to our members by publishing his program on a CD and make it available on the Internet as well. How was the PRA ever going to manage without Bobby? Then, a few weeks later I found myself thinking again about the many daunting
challenges facing the Pennington Research Association, Suddenly I heard Bobby’s
calm and reassuring voice telling me, “We can do it!” At that moment, I felt as
if Bobby’s was sitting by my side and encouraging me to get back to work. I
felt inspired and ready to start again. Yesterday I read Bobby’s biography
written by his son,
Isn’t it magical and wonderful how things seem to work out in the end? Bobby is gone and will be sorely missed, but his son, Paul, has taken up where his Dad left off. Paul is the Group 6 Leader and is working on his Dad’s genealogy research. Bobby, God Bless you! Your hard work on behalf of the Pennington Research Association and the help, kind words and great advice will never be forgotten. You will always be an inspiration to me and to the other volunteers in the Pennington Research Association. A Short Biography of Bobby Earl Pennington, Sr.By Paul L. Pennington, Ph.D.Bobby Earl Pennington, Sr., was born December 22, 1931 in Cherokee County, South Carolina
Bobby Earl Pennington, Sr. in 1972 at age 40His parents were Grover Cleveland Pennington and Hattie Elizabeth (Salmon) Pennington. He is a fourth great-grandson of Levi Pennington, Sr., the progenitor of Group 6 of the Pennington Research Association (PRA). Even though Bobby was the second to the last to be born of Grover and Hattie, he was raised as the baby of the family since his youngest brother, James, died as an infant. Bobby’s older siblings were Mildred, Frances, Gene, Nellie, and Johnny. Bobby’s family subsisted on farming when he was a boy. His family grew cotton and vegetables. Times were hard in rural South Carolina during the 1930s just as they were in many areas. Bobby, in his later years, told of these hard times and how the family would go through periods when they had very little to eat. When he was two years old, he suffered from severe burns after falling into the fireplace that was used to heat the family’s home. His sister Frances pulled him from the fire and saved him from burning to death. Bobby was temporarily blinded and he carried the scars from the burns with him on his hands and forehead all of his life. Bobby was a rambunctious, energetic child. Always running and jumping as small boys tend to do, he and his older brother Johnny were quite a handful.
Left: Bobby Earl Pennington (age 10), right: Johnny Cleveland Pennington (age 11), Center: Cow “Peeler”. Photo taken 1941, Cherokee County, South CarolinaBobby had to sleep in the same bed with his older sister Mildred because their small farmhouse was crowded. He wiggled, squirmed and tossed about the bed almost every night. Mildred, a teenager at the time, would have to chastise him so that she could get some sleep. She would try and settle him down, but he would just keep tossing and turning. Finally, she would have to spank him and she did this by popping him on the backside with her hand. She said to him, “Why can’t you be still!” She would say this in a rhythmic fashion so that she could pop him on the backside just after each word. Prior to 1949, students graduated at the end of the 11th grade in South Carolina. Bobby attended Gaffney High School and was in the first class of South Carolinians to go to the 12th grade. Bobby was a very smart and ingenious person. He funneled his energy into tinkering with electronic gadgets of all types. Once, he took a hearing aid, which at that time consisted of an earpiece that was connected to a small box and worn around the neck to pick up sound, and rewired it. He turned the hearing aid into a radio that could pick up AM radio stations. One of the popular girls in the school, the yearbook editor, said to Bobby, “I didn’t know you were hard of hearing.” He replied, “I’m not, this is a radio that I made myself.” He removed the earpiece and let her have a listen. She was enthralled! Before long, students, friends and family referred to Bobby as ‘Little Edison.’ The inscription beneath Bobby’s senior picture in the Gaffney High School yearbook for 1949 stated, “It can be done.” After high school, Bobby worked at a television and radio repair shop, putting his skills to good use. He also joined the South Carolina National Guard. In search of a better job, Bobby moved to the port city of Charleston, South Carolina after applying for an ad in the newspaper. Bobby found work at the Charleston Naval Shipyard as an electronics technician in 1951. He worked at the shipyard until his retirement in 1989. On the very first night the he was in Charleston, Bobby met Ruby Evelyn Wilson. He and two other boys from Gaffney, Marvin Bright and Gene Gibson, were riding down King Street when they saw two girls walking home from church. They pulled alongside the girls and began to chat with them. Bobby, Gene and Marvin asked the girls to go riding with them. The girls would not ride with them because they said the car was too small. In reality, girls just didn’t hop in the car with strange boys back in those days. Bobby owned a small Dodge Coupe at that time. So, Bobby, Gene and Marvin drove the coupe back to the boarding house where they were staying and switched cars. They hopped in Marvin’s sedan and went back to King Street to find the girls again. The boys tried and tried to get the girls to go riding with them. Finally the girls relented and said they would ride with them, but on one condition - they had to go to the Church of God Revival with them. Unbelievably, the boys showed up at church the next night, so the girls figured that the boys were okay and they went for a ride with them after church. Eighteen months later, on July 3, 1953, Bobby and Ruby married. Shortly after the wedding, Bobby was asked by the Department of the Navy to participate in a special project that was very dangerous, but would involve hazard pay. Bobby described some parts of this special assignment to his family many years later in the mid 1990s. In 1953, the Navy sent Bobby to Yucca Flats, Nevada where he witnessed several aboveground atomic bomb detonations. During each blast, he lay on the ground in a protective suit behind a large earthen bunker about 20 miles from ground zero. Even at this distance, the shockwave, according to Bobby, was powerful enough to lift a car and slam it back to the earth with such force that all of its windows were completely destroyed. Bobby was assigned to work with a team that studied radiation exposure to the human body. In order to do this, they used a dummy that was made of a substance that mimicked the density of human flesh. Devices that measure radiation exposure, called dosimeters, were placed throughout the ‘body’ of this dummy. Bobby and the crew had special recorders that were attached to dosimeters via wires that emerged from the dummy’s ‘skin.’ After the blast and the ‘all clear’ signal, Bobby and the team traveled straight for ground zero wearing their protective suits. Their assignment was to drive until the ambient radiation increased to a particular level. Holding a radiation counter out the window of the truck, the radiation level steadily climbed. The crew made it as close as three miles from ground zero when the required radiation level was reached. Then, they stopped and deployed the dummy, took recordings for a few minutes, and then left as quickly as possible. Much of this assignment was secret and he could not talk about it for many years. Most of his experiences in Yucca Flats have gone with him to the grave. After the assignment in Nevada, Bobby returned home to South Carolina to his wife and his regular job at the shipyard. During much of his career at the shipyard, Bobby worked for the Division of Combat Systems. He built and maintained electronic and computer systems aboard navy ships that operated combat gear such as missiles. He was again entrusted with national secrets. He never talked about what he did for the navy. Bobby and Ruby have three children, Bobby Earl Pennington, Jr., Paul Legare Pennington, and Michael Eugene Pennington. They have three grandchildren, Bobby Earl Pennington III, Ashley Nicole Pennington, and Amanda Arlean Pennington, by his oldest son, Bobby, Jr.
From left to right: Bobby Earl Pennington III, Bobby Earl Pennington, Sr., Michael Eugene Pennington, Ruby Evelyn (Wilson) Pennington, Paul Legare Pennington, Nancy Lynn (Wagner) Pennington, Tamra Lynn (Mewborn) Pennington, Ashley Nicole Pennington, Bobby Earl Pennington, Jr., and Amanda Arlean Pennington (flowergirl). Photo taken at Paul and Nancy’s wedding May 9, 1999, James Island Presbyterian Church, Charleston, South Carolina.Bobby lived to see his grandson Bobby, III get married to Dari Cook. However, he did not live to see his first great granddaughter born August 16, 2002, Jamie Nicole Pennington by Bobby and Dari. Bobby started from meager beginnings but accomplished many things throughout his life. After 12 years of service in the South Carolina National Guard, he received an honorable discharge at the rank of 2nd Lieutenant. He was a founding member and past president of the Charleston Amateur Radio Society. Bobby was a Master Mason and 32-degree Scottish Rite Mason. At the age of 40, he graduated from the Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina, with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Physics. Shortly thereafter, Bobby became a state board certified electrical engineer in 1973. He worked his way up the civilian ranks during the cold war. In 1989, he retired from the Navy as Chief Engineer of Combat Systems at the Charleston Naval Shipyard. Bobby loved telling jokes and funny stories. He was always ready for a good laugh. He also loved the Atlanta Braves. He could tell you the names of every player and the positions they played from year to year. Bobby was a master chef on the grill. He specialty was T-Bone steaks. He was a very intelligent man and always had a thirst for learning that continued until the day he died. Bobby tried to build a mainframe computer in the garage during the 1970s. Before he finished the mainframe, a box arrived at the front door with his first microcomputer. It was a kit computer with four kilobytes of ram. He soldered every integrated circuit, transistor, capacitor, and diode onto the motherboard himself. A few weeks later when he had it up and running, a big dump truck backed up to the house and some men loaded all of mainframe components onto the truck and hauled them off. Over the subsequent years, he taught himself computing. Bobby was one of the few people that understood how to program a computer as well as the electronics that made the machine work. Bobby was always interested in his roots and after he retired he devoted his life to researching the family’s genealogy. Bobby was an Assistant Research Director of the PRA. He was also Group Leader for Group 6 – Levi Pennington, Sr. Bobby also was the historian for the Bazzle Cousins of the Lowcountry of South Carolina and he served as the historian/secretary/treasurer of the Salmon Cousins of Cherokee County, South Carolina. He tirelessly researched his roots, the Penningtons, Salmons, and Tinleys. He also spent a great deal of time researching his wife’s roots, the Wilsons, Bazzles, and Linders. In addition to the great deal of research that he performed, one of his greatest genealogical accomplishments was creating an index of names from all of the PRA’s publications. Bobby built the index, now called the Bobby Pennington Index Project in his honor, using database-programming software. He scanned nearly all of the Pennington Pedigrees and all of the Pennington Cousins Couriers and extracted the surnames used in the index. It was his hope to have this index available one day in an online format for other researchers to use. Bobby died on June 12, 2002 in his home due to heart failure. He succumbed to the arteriosclerosis that had plagued him for many years. Bobby left a void that will be difficult to fill. If you ever had the chance to meet him, your first impression of him would have been that of a quiet and reserved man. He was never one to force his knowledge upon anyone, but when he spoke people listened. Because he was well respected and loved by his family, friends, and fellow researchers, he will be dearly missed. Page Last Updated: 05/11/2008 Donations to the PRA in Bobby's name are welcome and can be made by mail or on line. Click here to use our on line donation page. Mail your donations to: Peggy Pennington Pound, PRA Treasurer, 6324 Shady Valley Ct., Las Vegas, NV 89130. |
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