Category: Dabbs Greer

This is the House That Dabbs Built

9/9/2014

This Craftsman, Prairie style home with it's look as if it is rising from the earth, is located at 205 W. Main in Anderson, Missouri. It was built in 1940. It is 1,700 square foot, 3 bedroom and 2 baths. It is on an approximate 23 acre lot and the estimated value in 2011 was 94,541.00.

It is the kind of house you would expect for a down to earth person like Dabbs Greer. I have heard many stories of visits and waves by Mr. Greer from the porch of this home; to children headed to school or to people driving down main street on their way home.

View of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO from up the hill.

Side view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO

Another side view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO

Front view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO

Side view of Dabbs Greer's former house here in Anderson, MO

There is tell of Dabbs Greer having a 1956 Chrysler light blue and white Imperial provided by Bill McCracken of McCracken Motors for him to take himself and lady friends around here in Anderson, Missouri when he was in town.

We also know that Mr. Greer apparently had a interest in older vehicles and was honored by a car show at the dedication of Town Hole Park in his honor in 2002 .

All these little things add up to tell you about a person's life.

What do you know about Dabbs Greer?

-The GA Gang

For more info on Dabbs Greer, visit:
/dabbs-greer.html

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Dabbs Greer Update

6/18/2014

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We are getting closer to the goal of placing a memorial bench at Dabb's gravesite, but we're not there yet...

BORN: Robert William Greer Known as: Paul Edgecomb, Dabbs, Reverend Alden, Jonas, Billy Bob, and hundreds more names.

Pictures of Dabbs Greer from around the internet

Help us fund the memorial bench in honor of Dabbs Greer. Contact us at [email protected], 417-845-8000, or send us a message on our website or Facebook page, we'd love to hear from you.

We have a bank account set up for direct transfers, contact us for more information.

Thanks for all your help in getting us closer to making this a reality!

-The GA Gang

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"It's Al-man-zo, not Al-mon-zo"

5/21/2014

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Our day in Mansfield, Mo.

Since we found that Dabbs’ date of death was missing from his headstone, we have been on the search for information. A few weeks ago, our search led us to Mansfield, Missouri, Southeast of Springfield, where two of Laura Ingalls Wilder’s homes are located. Laura Ingalls Wilder wrote the Little House on the Prairie books, which is what the television show “Little House on the Prairie” was based on. We really enjoyed our day at Rocky Ridge Farm.

One of the things I found interesting was that Laura’s husband’s name was pronounced Al-”man”-zo not Al-”mon”-zo. It seems creating a role for television made a change in the way the name is pronounced.

I fell in love with the rock house that Laura and Almanzo’s daughter, Rose, had built for them as a retirement home. The front opening up for air flow and overlooking a beautiful valley, the water cistern, the stone, and even the design by the stone mason when he put the rock together all show that the home was built with love.

The builder put these unique trowel marks on the entire house between the rocks.

While we were in the museum, we found out that we have a few items in Grandma’s Attic that are similar to, or exactly like, some of Laura and Rose’s favorite possessions.

There were pieces of Depression glass throughout the rock house.

All of these pieces of Depression glass are for sale at Grandma's Attic

In the museum, there was a leather postcard.

In the corner of the museum displaying Rose’s possessions, there was a set of Stangl “blueberry” pottery dishes.

There was a lovely lilac bush in the front yard of Laura and Almanzo’s original farm house. This house was a house built with love over time. The kitchen had first been attached to a log cabin then moved across the yard to be the beginning of what grew into a farm house over time, complete with a library and music room.

We ended the day with a visit to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company’s village which is also located in Mansfield, Missouri. It is a fun village, where you learn the story of how it started with a seed finding trip, and now has hundreds of varieties of natural seeds.

Building at Baker Creek Village

With annual weekend festivals at Baker Creek and the prospect of more exploration of the Rock House....

Mansfield is one up for a second visit from me!

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Baker-Creek-Heirloom-Seed-Company/155935376162?fref=photo

http://www.rareseeds.com/

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Laura-Ingalls-Wilder-Historic-Home-and-Museum/166413716755023

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We Called Him "Billy Bob" Around Here...

5/14/2014

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You may be wondering, "Who is 'Billy Bob'?"

Well, it is the actor famous for his role as Reverend Alden on “Little House on the Prairie”, Robert William “Dabbs” Greer. He was raised here in Anderson, Missouri and was called, “Billy Bob” by locals.

On April 8, 2014, we published our blog post about this local hero, and our research for that post has set us off on a journey. A few weeks ago we went to Peace Valley Cemetery to take pictures of Robert William Greer’s final resting place. We discovered that his date of death was absent from the headstone. Being curious, I did some calling around, hoping that it was just an oversight. I found that Dabbs’ final resting was completed by power of attorney of a funeral home in California, as he was the only child of Randall and Bernice Greer and there are no close relatives. It seems this responsibility did not include having the date of death placed on the headstone after his passing on April 28, 2007.

On May 5, 2007 the town of Anderson, Mo. had a wonderful memorial and placement of his ashes. They placed a memorial stone in the area park and named a natural pool after him. Ozark Funeral Home, Premier Memorial of Anderson, and many locals did a wonderful job of laying him to rest. Talking to these same people have been very helpful in my search for information. It was while reading over materials provided to me by a local business that I came to find out that he was called “Billy Bob” by the people from this area when he lived here.

We've been doing a lot of note-taking while gathering info from local people.

Now that you're caught up on our journey so far, here's where we're at.

Grandma’s Attic would like to have Mr. Greer’s date of death put on his headstone as well as having a commemorative bench placed close by his grave site as a memorial to: William Robert “Billy Bob”-“Dabbs” Greer, with one of his quotes inscribed on the top, back:
"Every character actor, in their own little sphere, is the lead."
as well as having this picture of him etched on the bench.

Photo graciously lent to us by http://jimnolt.com/

Here's where you come in!

WE NEED YOUR HELP
and believed you would like to be a part of this project.

The cost of this project will be $3,071.55, which includes;
the inscription of the date of death on the headstone,
the cost of the bench with inscribed words,
and the placement of the bench.

These services will be completed by Premier Memorial, of Anderson, Missouri.
Thank you, Premier Memorial for donating the slab on which the bench will be placed.

Digital Mock-up of the bench to be purchased

If you are interested in helping place the bench and get the date of death put on Robert William Greer’s headstone, here’s how you can help:

-Donations can be made at Grandma’s Attic, in Anderson, Mo.
There will be a jar available for cash donations.

-We are also able to take credit card donations
in store or over the phone.

-If you would like to send donations via mail, please send them to:

Grandma’s Attic,
Attn: Billy Bob,
4712 Goldfinch Road
Joplin, Mo. 64804

For more information about this project,
please email [email protected]
or call Grandma’s Attic at 417-845-8000.

We hope you’ll join us on this journey of discovering more regarding the life of Mr. Greer and paying our respects to him. If you’d like to read what we have posted about Dabbs’ life previously, please click on the links at the bottom of this article to read our recent posts regarding his life.

Please feel free to leave a comment below, as we’d love to hear any stories/information that you might have to share about Robert William Greer, as well as childhood memories of watching his many movies and TV shows.

After all, we’ve surely all seen this face on our TV screen at some time or other… :)

For more on Dabbs' life, visit the links below:

http://www.grandmasattic-antiques.com/1/post/2014/04/dabbs-greer-anderson-mo.html

http://www.grandmasattic-antiques.com/1/post/2014/04/camp-crowder-creators.html

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Camp Crowder Creators

4/15/2014

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About 6 months ago, we came across a picture of a carpenter crew from Camp Crowder, in Neosho, Mo. Dated 3/27/1942. (V. R. Moore, Senior Foreman and Henry V. Rogues, Foreman.)

This picture is currently for sale at Grandma's Attic. $10.00

We started talking about Camp Crowder with Earnie and Loretta of “Finders Keepers”, (Some vendors at Grandma’s Attic). They were kind enough to lend us a book they have on Camp Crowder. The book was published by Newton Country Historical Society in 2006, and is titled “From Camp Crowder to Crowder College.” It was compiled by Larry A. James.

While researching Camp Crowder, we came across some interesting information.

One fact that stood out to us was that the creator of Beetle Bailey and the creator of the Dick Van Dyke Show have a common thread with a local institution here close by Anderson, Missouri, where Grandma’s Attic is located.

The cartoonist Mort Walker, of Beetle Bailey, and writer Carl Reiner, of the Dick Van Dyke Show both drew inspiration for their creative interests from their time at Camp Crowder. Most of the humor in Beetle Bailey revolves around the inept characters stationed at “Camp Swampy” (inspired by Camp Crowder). The Dick Van Dyke show was based on Carl Reiner’s professional and personal life. Both Reiner and Walker were stationed at Camp Crowder in Neosho, Missouri while it was being used as a military training facility.

Another local personality became attached to Camp Crowder through one of these creators, Carl Reiner. Actor Robert William “Dabbs” Greer, who was raised here in town and laid to rest in a local cemetery, was the minister on the Dick Van Dyke Show who married the characters of Rob Petrie and Laura Meehan. (He was also the minister who married the characters Mike Brady and Carol Ann Taylor Martin on The Brady Bunch.) :)

{See our recent blog post on "Dabbs Greer & Anderson, MO" for more info.}

In the Dick Van Dyke Show, Dabbs played the Army chaplain of Camp Crowder, where he married Rob and Laura.

From May 15, 1941 to July 1, 1962, 10,240 acres south of Neosho in Newton County were known as "Camp Crowder" and used by the United States Military as a training compound. From April 2, 1963 to Present it has been known as "Crowder College." Many of the same buildings were used by both the military compound and the college.

Image Credit: http://shepquest.files.wordpress.com/

Crowder College is only approximately fifteen minutes’ drive Northeast of Grandma’s Attic, in Neosho, Missouri. Next time you stop in to visit us, you might want to leave some extra time to check out the local history surrounding Crowder....

The college and the camp.

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Dabbs Greer & Anderson, MO

4/8/2014

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Robert William “Dabbs” Greer
(April 2, 1917 – April 28, 2007)

Image from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This very familiar face has been seen in films and especially on TV for fifty years. This American actor was a sort of "everyman" in his roles and played merchants, preachers, businessmen, and other "pillars of the community" types as well as assorted villains. With his plain looking face and wavy hair he was a solid supporting actor. His distinctive, mellow, southern-accented voice fit well in shows featuring rustic characters, such as westerns. He also was portrayed on other shows as a minister, and is probably best remembered as the Reverend Robert Alden in NBC's Little House on the Prairie.

Greer in 1954//From Wikipedia

Dabbs was born in Fairview, Missouri (which is about 200 miles north and East of Anderson, Mo.), but he was reared in Anderson, Missouri. He was the only child of a pharmacist father, Randall Alexander Greer, and a speech therapist mother,
Bernice Irene. It is said that he got his stage name, "Dabbs", from his grandmother, who's maiden name was Dabbs.

http://www.riflemanconnors.com/dabbs_greer.htm

His first acting experience was on stage in a children's theatre production when he was eight years old. He made his film debut as an extra in the 1938 film Jesse James, which was filmed mainly in Pineville, Missouri. "They were paying $5 a day – a day! – to local people for being extras. That was really good money in those days, more money than we had seen in a long time," Dabbs told the Neosho Daily News in 2002.

He attended Drury College in Springfield, Missouri, where he earned a BA. He was a member of Theta Kappa Nu, and headed the drama department and Little Theatre in Mountain Grove, Missouri, from 1940-43. He then moved on to the famed Pasadena Playhouse in California as actor, instructor and administrator from 1943-50. He made his film debut in Reign of Terror (1949) (aka "The Black Book") in an uncredited bit part and went on to appear in many parts during the next 50 years. Greer's last feature film was a prominent role as the 108-year-old version of the character played by Tom Hanks in 1999's The Green Mile – 61 years after Greer was an extra in the 1938 film Jesse James. Greer's last television performance was in a 2003 episode of Lizzie McGuire.

http://www.riflemanconnors.com/dabbs_greer.htm

Dabbs played in many supporting roles, but was not a lead actor.
One quote attributed to him is

"Every character actor,
in their own little sphere,
is the lead."

And although Mr. Greer may not have played in big roles,
it's fair to say that he was pretty important.
After all, who else could have married

Rob & Laura Petrie on "The Dick Van Dyke Show"
And
Mr. & Mrs. Brady on "The Brady Bunch". :)

As a side note, in the pictures below, on the left, he is playing the role of the Army chaplain at Camp Crowder, in Neosho, Missouri, which is only approx. 15 minutes North of Anderson.

In 2007, at the age of 90, he died at Huntington Hospital after a losing battle with liver and heart disease. Greer never married and had no survivors. His resting place is Peace Valley Cemetery in Anderson, MO. Grandma’s Attic is located in Anderson, and we are proud to say that Dabbs Greer was raised here and is buried in a local cemetery.

Dabbs Greer, in the 1999 movie, The Green Mile//From Wikipedia

The cemetery is approx. 2 miles from Grandma's Attic, if you happen to be in the area and would like to visit his resting place, we'd be more than happy to give you directions! You might also enjoy a visit to "Dabbs Greer Town Hole Park" just off Main Street in Anderson.

We have enjoyed researching the life of Mr. Greer, and we hope you enjoy reading about it as well!