Bob was always the first to comfort when you were sad, the first to cheer when you had an acheivement, he was there to pray when you had problems, and he was there to encourage when you were down.

I met him the first time in person at the first Legacy Five concert. He seemed to know everyone there when he came up and anyone he might not know he met before he left.

Even though I knew he was in bad health, my first reaction when I got the email was shock- not Bob. But my next reaction was thinking of him running around heaven after bowing at Jesus feet, I imagine he is greeting so many friends and those he loved to hear sing. What a time he will be having now!

DeeAnn
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Bob Whitehead was among the very first members of our E-mail list, and he was very loyal to it. It took Bob a little while to warm up to the Message Boards on the website, but he finally made the transition and became a poster on the forums as well.

I remember the first time I ever met Bob in person. He was living in California at the time, working for Microsoft. I guess he will always be affectionately remember by those of us early members on the E-mail list as Microsoft Bob, that was his internet name. Bob was moving back to Nashville and he was SOOOOO happy. We were still living in Southaven, MS at the time, and that's just a stone's throw from Interstate 40 in Memphis, so Bob wanted to meet for lunch.

After I set everything up, I got to thinking, I've never met this guy before and a lot of weird people are on the internet, what if he's a serial killer. Seriously, I didn't know what I had gotten myself in to. It took about two minutes of seeing his smiling face and already hearing one "well Glooorrryy", and I knew that we were going to have a great meeting time. We talked about the Lord and Southern Gospel music for more than an hour when he said he needed to be on his way, but before he left, he gave me some of the biggest California oranges that I had ever seen. Now every time I see a big orange, I think of Bob Whitehead. He made it by to visit a few more times, and after we moved to Nashville, he moved to Florida, but every time he came back to Nashville to visit, he always made time to visit with us. He even spent Christmas Day with us one year.

Bob loved SGM, and of course he loved Kirk Talley music. If Kirk had a soundtrack out, Bob had it and was singing it. Bob loved the Lord, and wasn't afraid to let it be shown.

We are going to miss Bob and his "Well Glooorrryy", but can hear him shouting that in Heaven right now,

Deon Unthank
SoGospelNews.com
My Blog

Some people are like Slinkys… Not really good for anything, but they
still bring a smile to your face when you push them down a flight of stairs - Author Unknown

While we were not "big" fans of southern gospel, we are big fans of Bob Whitehead. It was thru Bob that we learned to love and go to concerts of the Cathedrals, Sandy Patti, Steve Green, Kirk Talley, and The Talleys. We, Horace & Betty McKenzie, met Bob at the Lord's Chapel in Brentwood, outside of Nashville over 26 years ago. We have been thru the good and the difficult times with Bob. The 3 of us and our daughter, Mary Carroll, were in the ministry together for about 2 years. We almost lived together at that point. Since Bob had a 1/2 sister named Betty, that he had lost contact with, and I, (Betty), had a brother named Bob that was killed when I was 17, we became each others' "brother" and "sister. When many people met us, they tried to fit us into a "box" that they could understand, but for those of you who know Bob, you can't fit him into a box. People thought he was our son, though he was only 5 years younger that I, (Betty) am. Other people thought he was my husband. People had a hard time understanding our relationship. He was "alone" when we met him, and he fast became a part of our family. We shared birthdays, holidays, etc. together. He even gave me a surprise birthday party once, complete with clown and balloons. We remember Bob's generosity. If he had it, he would give it. He paid for us to go to a Gaither's Family Fest one week-end. We went on 2 cruises with him that the Talleys were on and numerous Believer's Conventions with Kenneth Copeland Ministries. He blessed us with so many things we would never have experienced otherwise. About the time we moved to Monroe, N.C. in 2000, Bob moved to Atlanta were he fulfilled his lifelong dream of living in a 26th floor deluxe apartment in a very nice apartment building. He loved that place.
He came here every March to celebrate joint birthdays with Horace and Mary Carroll. He came every Thanksgiving until last year when we went there because he was unable to travel. We decorated "his little house for Christmas, and as far as we know it is still decorated.
Last Christmas, he was unable to travel, so as our family gathered on Christmas Day, we used web-cams to be together. That was the last time we saw him, but we talked by phone almost every day.
When he was in the hospital in February-March 2007, we went down and stayed a month with him. When we went back in June, and again at Thanksgiving I, (Betty), talked to him sometimes twice a day, while he was in the hospital. We were not able to go due to our 50th wedding anniversary celebration planned for June 28th. Our anniversary is actually June 27th, and though he wanted to be here with us so much, we know that his spirit was here even though his body was not. We had a "celebration of life", service for him last Friday night (6/27) with family and friends that had come for our anniversary, and who and loved Bob. We told stories, laughed, cried, read scripture, and prayed. It was a precious time and we know he was here with us. We can rejoice that he is in the presence of the Lord, singing, dancing, and running the streets of Glory!
We will leave on Monday, July 7, to go to Pensacola to take care of Bob's affairs. We covet your prayers and we thank all of you who have helped in any way to get us thru this difficult time. Many people will miss Bob as a friend. We will miss him so much more. We rejoice for him, but he leaves behind a big hole in our hearts that nothing can fill.
We are comforted by the knowledge that we will see him again very soon...

Horace, thank you for sharing about Bob. He was such a supporter of our work and a dear friend. I think about him daily. He is missed but he is so blessed now.

Susan Unthank
http://susan.sogospelnews.com/

So saddened to hear about Bob's leaving us - but rejoicing at his homegoing!

Never will forget our first encounter with Bob. The group I was with at the time "The Gabriels" was supposed to sing at a benefit for his church in Nashville. Our bus broke down & we didn't make it to Nashville until later that night in a U-Haul truck (it was the first and only time our group was ever mentioned on Paul Heil's program as well - for not showing up!).

The church was located on the edge of the red light district & Bob had us singing there the next morning. He met us that night to set up the equipment & when we pulled up he was asleep in his car (except we weren't certain if he was asleep or dead as it took us several minutes to wake him up).

We had a great time & were so impressed at his big heart for the homeless people his church ministered to.

We pulled up the next morning & the parking lot was full of people on bicycles & carrying all their possessions in backpacks & Bob was right there encouraging & ministering to everyone. What an encouragement he was to us!

He will certainly be missed!