Bobby Floyd Crotwell

Bobby Floyd Crotwell was born in Jackson, Mississippi, to Myrtle and Byron Jack Crotwell on May 31st, 1933. During his early childhood he mysteriously acquired a number of names and aliases none of which could be thoroughly explained: Preston, Floyd, Billy, and Bobby, were just a few, but as for us kids, we just called him Dad. 

His father Byron Jack was a man of the times who worked his fields with mules and a plow, and when possible, he worked in the Pascagoula shipyard as a welder. Dad was one of three boys. The boys were expected to tend the stock, work the fields, hunt the meat, and keep the hearth and stove stocked with firewood. His mom and sisters ran the house, dressed out the game, tended the kitchen garden, and cooked three meals a day on a wood burning stove. 

There was no electricity for much of his early life, and in the evening the family would listen to The Grand Ole Opry on the battery powered radio, play games, read, and tell stories. Dad developed into a masterful storyteller, and he could spin a yarn that kept his audience on the edge of their seats or laughing till they cried. 

We all imagined Dad as a Tom Sawyer like character that ran the woods, rarely knew shoes, never met a tree he couldn’t climb, or a body of water he couldn’t float, swim, or fish. He disliked school but loved his teachers, and on the weekends he and his brothers would hitchhike nine miles to sell peanuts and pop at the boxing and wrestling matches in town. 

Dad loved his boyhood home, but he also had a desire to see more of the world than the woods of Mississippi could offer, so after graduating high school, he signed up for the U.S. Navy in 1951. His first station was aboard the USS Kearsarge CV-33, an attack aircraft carrier, and before long he found himself seeing action off the coast of Korea during the Korean war. 

Later he would change from a sailor of the fleet to a boots on the ground SeaBee. And in 1971 he would help to carve fire bases out of the Jungles outside Saigon in what at the time was the Republic of Vietnam. Somewhere along the way he decided to make the Navy a career and life. 

Despite all the traveling and adventuring Dad somehow found time for love. His first wife Lovella was an Odessa beauty who put a smile on his face and two children in his arms, but the life of a military wife is never easy, and some things are not meant to be. His next wife Carol was also a Texas beauty, and she gave him three children. Altogether, Dad had two daughters, Tina and Heather and three sons Bobby, David, and Byron. 

Dads’ faith was a guiding force throughout his life. He was a passionate biblical scholar who loved nothing more than investigating and debating the scriptures of the King James Bible. And he had a beautiful baritone voice and loved to sing his favorite hymns. 

He loved to garden, and he could overcome any environment to produce some of the best fruits and vegetables around. He could grow corn in sand, melons in gravel, and tomatoes on a rock to name just a few of his triumphs.

 As his children grew up and became parents themselves, he earned a reputation as a baby whisperer who could get even the fussiest of babies asleep in no time. 

Dad also enjoyed cooking the old southern dishes. His biscuits and tomato gravy were famous county wide, his cornbread beans and greens were sublime, and his cobbler was known to make French chefs blush with envy. 

Dad lived his life on his own terms. He was a good listener and confidante who was quick with a hug, a word of encouragement, and a helping hand. His priorities were always God, Family, Country, and of course the Dallas Cowboys. We were lucky to have him and hope to do him right in how we live our own lives.