Robert Lynn Bobby STUBBLEFIELD

Retired McMinnville firefighter and civic activist Robert L. ?Bobby? Stubblefield died Monday, January 23 at McMinnville Health Care following an extended illness. He was 75.  Funeral services were Thursday, January 26 at 2 PM at Central Church of Christ, with his son, Jonathan Stubblefield, his grandson, Jacob Hughey and Donald Jones officiating. Burial followed in Mt. View Cemetery.  The McMinnville resident and Warren County native was born February 8, 1930. A member of Westwood Church of Christ, he was preceded in death by his father and step-mother, Hiram and Mary Crouch Stubblefield and his mother, Opal Boyd Stubblefield. He was the grandson of John Henry Harrison Boyd, credited with founding the nursery industry and establishing it in Warren County.  A volunteer firefighter from age 19, Stubblefield joined the McMinnville Fire Department as a fulltime firefighter in 1983 following his retirement from Kerns Bread Company, where he was employed in route sales and thrift store management for more than thirty years.  Prior to his retirement from the department in 1999, he was recognized by the Tennessee Department of Labor as Tennessee?s Oldest Active Firefighter.  In 1970, he joined with the late Herman Mitchell, as well as Hubert Boyd , Bill Pendegraph, and former McMinnville Fire Chief Bill Baker in founding the Collins River Rural Fire Protection Unit.  In 1986, he was cited for bravery by the City of McMinnville for single-handedly rescuing a traffic accident victim from burning wreckage following a head-on collision in front of Stubblefield?s Beersheba Road home. He was named Volunteer Fireman of the Year in 1978 and named McMinnville Firefighter of the Year in 1995.  Long active in community affairs, Stubblefield led in the development of  Fairview Community Improvement Club, where he served as president for six years and was named the John W. High Citizen of the Year in 1972. He actively served on the Warren County Community Improvement Club Council.  Additionally he was a recipient of the CHEER Mental Health Bell Ringer Award in 1993 and served on that agency?s board of directors. He also served on the board of the Upper Cumberland Development District and its personnel committee. A former president of the Warren County Historical Society and the Warren County Senior High School Band Boosters, he was also instrumental in the development of the Savage Gulf Preservation League, where he served on the Board of Directors.  A member of the McMinnville Jaycees and long active in the McMinnville Lions Club, Stubblefield for many years was a fixture in the McMinnville Christmas Parade as a clown piloting a motorized bathtub. He took his act on the road, appearing in Christmas parades in Nashville, Tullahoma, Cookeville and Murfreesboro.  Following his daughter?s wedding in Murfreesboro?s Cannonsburg Historical Village church, Stubblefield returned home and urged his cousin, Hubert Boyd, to donate the Antioch Church of Christ building in honor of the Boyd family as the first structure in what would become Fairfield Village at the Warren County Fairgrounds.  On March 31, 1950, he married Barbara Swack of McMinnville, who survives.  Also surviving are a daughter, Melinda (Jerry) Hughey, Pulaski; three sons, Jonathan (Tonya) Stubblefield, Smithville; Jeffery (Stacey) Stubblefield and Danny Stubblefield, both of McMinnville; a sister, Elizabeth Stubblefield DeAngelo, Masury, Ohio; a step-brother, Charles (Helen) Craven, Huntsville, Alabama; two uncles, J.P. (Ann) Stubblefield and Claude (Marcella) Stubblefield, both of McMinnville and six grandsons, Christopher Stubblefield and Brandon Stubblefield, both of McMinnville; Joshua Hughey, Knoxville; Jacob Hughey, Cleveland, Tennessee; Justin Stubblefield, Sewanee; and Drake Stubblefield of Smithville.  Active pallbearers were Jerry Hughey, Charles Craven and the grandsons. Honorary pallbearers were members of the McMinnville Fire Department.