Robert Henry Angle

Robert Henry Angle, 98, of Laurel, MS, died Monday, August 28, 2006 at his residence. He was born February 22, 1908 in Upton, PA, the son of Harry Vincent Angle and Stella Boyd Angle. After graduating from the Mercersburg Academy, Mercersburg, PA, he attended the University of Cincinnati before leaving to work in a variety of marketing positions there in Cincinnati. In the summer of 1934, he spent five weeks with a companion navigating an eighteen-foot sea sled with a six-horsepower motor down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers from Cincinnati to New Orleans, towing a small boat carrying the companion's journalist aunt. At the conclusion of the 1,563-mile trip, The Times-Picayune ran a story about that adventure and later offered him a position in New Orleans. For two years, he worked in its marketing research department. In the fall of 1936, he became responsible for The Times-Picayune's circulation in 55 Mississippi counties. Except for the time he spent in the U.S. Navy during World War II, he oversaw the newspaper's dealers in those counties until his retirement in 1979. In 1939, he married Frances Lee of Laurel and moved with her to live in Jackson, where their daughter was born as World War II was escalating. He enlisted voluntarily in the war effort, serving as a Seabee in Hawaii while assisting with the reconstruction of Pearl Harbor. After the war, he and his family moved to Laurel permanently. His wife Frances died in May, 1999. Bob - ""Mr. Bob'' or to some, just ""Mr.'' - never failed to delight collectors and children. His uncanny gift for finding both the unexpected and the sought-after amazed all who knew him. Who else could discover a Hester Bateman teapot at a Laurel, MS, flea market? Who else could make raking leaves a delight for children? One of his archives from the 1950s locates all early Colt pistols he had found in his travels through Mississippi. Discovery was his great gift and interest. He is survived by his daughter and son-in-law, Mary Frances Angle Vogler and Frederick W. Vogler of Chapel Hill, NC; a grandson, Robert F. Vogler, and his wife Ann Linnehan Vogler; a great-granddaughter, Katherine Maeve Vogler of Arlington, VA; two nephews, Thomas Shook and Robert H. Angle; a niece, Barbara Angle Aller and other family members.