By Emily Younker
eyounker@joplinglobe.com
CARTHAGE, Mo. — Bob Sheldon Jr. used to go frogging with his father when he was little.
He remembers watching his father wade through the water, waist-deep, while he followed after, barely keeping his chin above water.
After what they have called a tough year, the Sheldon family is focused on memories such as that in honor of their parents, Robert Sr. and Ellen Sheldon, who were found stabbed to death Oct. 11, 2008, at their home west of Carthage.
Family members, friends and regular customers of the Old Cabin Shop, the Sheldons’ business, gathered Sunday at the shop for a memorial in their honor hosted by their four children.
“(Hopefully people will) share some stories and tell us stories about what my dad and mom did for them,” said Bob Sheldon Jr., the oldest of the Sheldons’ children. “Obviously they had a big impact on a lot of people’s lives.”
Stan Pelham, a family friend for more than 20 years, said he didn’t have the words to describe what everyone has gone through since last October.
“It’s just a huge loss,” he said.
Pelham said Robert Sheldon Sr. could be grouchy at times, but he was always around to help. When Pelham’s son was assigned a paper in middle school about weapons during the Civil War, “Bob (Sr.) took that boy and talked to him for three hours,” he said.
Sheldon Sr. also piqued Pelham’s interest in the hunter safety course he taught at his shop; Pelham is now an instructor.
“He was just quite a guy,” Pelham said. “They were both good people, really good people.”
The past year has been “hell,” said Karen Wright, whose father was a cousin of Robert Sheldon Sr.
“You don’t know whether to laugh or cry,” Wright said. “You never know when a memory is going to sneak up on you. A smell can trigger a memory.”
Wright grew up close to the Sheldons. She recalled that Ellen Sheldon had always wanted to visit Hawaii, so when Wright and her husband vacationed in Hawaii in February, they took a picture of the Sheldons with them.
Wright said she hopes people will continue to pray for the Sheldon family.
“There’s a lot of healing (still needed),” she said. “It’s kind of hard to heal when that wound keeps getting opened.”
Bob Sheldon Jr. said that his parents’ murders one year ago “started off a whole cascade” of family tragedy.
Just one month after the Sheldons were killed, Robert Sheldon Sr.’s younger brother died of a heart attack. Their daughter Cara Housh’s husband died over the summer.
Larry Ogden, Ellen Sheldon’s younger brother, who had been living in the Sheldons’ house, was taken to Freeman Hospital on Sunday morning before the memorial, Sheldon said. He died later that afternoon.
Sheldon said he can still feel his parents around him. One day, for example, he went out to his parents’ cabin in Pineville, Mo., to mow. As he was mowing — avoiding the patches of brown-eyed susans, just as his mother would have wanted — a sudden gust of wind blew up some leaves, which began to swirl around the cabin in a whirlwind, Sheldon said.
He took that a sign of his parents’ approval for the way he and his siblings were keeping the shop going.
Sheldon said business at the Old Cabin Shop is going well. He and his siblings try to keep the shop open daily, and in the past year, they have added log siding to the building and mounted a memorial stone for their parents in front next to the door.
“We just knew we were going to do it (keep the shop open),” he said. “We knew we had to give it a good run.”
Sheldon said he has learned a lot over the past year about the business, which is a gun and archery shop. If he has a question, he now finds himself digging through reference books instead of asking his father, who was his go-to person.
“I automatically reach for the phone to give him a call,” Sheldon said. “A year later, I still do that.”
Daniel Sheldon, the youngest sibling, said he recently built the archery section up and expanded it slightly.
“There was a lot of hard work over the years (that went into the shop), and we want to keep it going,” he said.
The Sheldon family is also going strong. It now includes the Sheldons’ 20 grandchildren and one great-greatchild, the youngest of whom will never know the head of their family, Bob Sheldon Jr. said.
“Mom loved her grandkids,” he said. “She loved to babysit and teach the little ones.”
Sheldon said he and his siblings attend every court appearance by the two men accused of their parents’ murders. He has no sympathy for them.
“I didn’t really understand how well thought of my parents were until this happened,” Sheldon said. “Those two have no idea what they took away.”
Carthage, Jasper County
Related Photos
Discussion
One year later, family still mourns for slain parents
- Carthage, Jasper County
-
-
Carthage attorney, reformer of revenue department, dies
James R. Spradling, a Carthage attorney who was noted for his reform of the Missouri Department of Revenue in the 1970s, died at 5:50 a.m. Monday at McCune-Brooks Regional Hospital.
-
Bondswoman charged with false imprisonment
A bail bondswoman from Carthage is facing a charge of false imprisonment for allegedly attempting to put a man in jail without a judge’s order, then taking him home and handcuffing him to the banister of a staircase until a friend of the man paid her his bond money.
-
Man’s last statement to be given to defendant
A judge ruled Monday that the Jasper County prosecutor must provide attorneys for Darren J. Winans with a videotaped statement co-defendant Matthew D. Laurin made about the Sheldon murders shortly before killing himself.
-
Carthage proposes 1.6-cent rise in city property tax
A drop in the assessed value of Carthage real estate will translate to an increase of about 1.6 cents in the city’s proposed property tax rate.
-
Open house to celebrate projects at courthouse
Projects completed last year at the Jasper County Courthouse will be celebrated in ceremonies Thursday in the courthouse lobby.
County officials will join representatives of local chambers of commerce and others for a ribbon-cutting and open house to mark the opening of a Route 66 display in the lobby and a new “peace star” atop the building. -
State budget cuts reduce county funds
County officials are bracing for more state budget cuts to translate into a loss of county revenues.
In an effort to balance Missouri’s budget, the state earlier this year cut the amount it reimburses county assessors for work to determine property values. The budget approved by lawmakers for fiscal 2011 calls for cutting the amount the state reimburses counties to house prisoners bound for state lockup. -
Jo Ellis: County home to rare yellowwood tree
In late spring, drifts as white as snow fill the gutters and curbs on the east side of the Jasper County Courthouse. It isn’t snow, of course; it’s the fallen petals of the yellowwood tree that grows squarely in front of the door to the Jasper County Extension office.
-
Jasper County Commission gets building project update
Plans to close out one building project and start another were reviewed by the Jasper County Commission last week.
Darieus Adams, Western District associate commissioner, met Thursday with officials of the firm who designed a $292,400 project to upgrade the lighting and make other changes to make four county-owned buildings more energy efficient. -
Two men running for associate judge in 39th Circuit take case to court
Two men running for associate judge in Missouri’s 39th Circuit began battling it out in a Jasper County courtroom this week.
Jasper County Circuit Judge Gayle Crane heard arguments Wednesday concerning the disclosure of documents sought by Robert “Bobby” George, Aurora, the current Lawrence County prosecutor. -
Unveiling ceremony celebrates CHS tiger
Kandy Frazier, Carthage High School principal, summed it up once the new addition to the CHS campus was unveiled Thursday.
The bronze tiger sculpture created by Carthage artist and sculptor Bob Tommey, she said, is the kind of work that would be found at a big university. - More Carthage, Jasper County Headlines
-
No Limits for Disabled Hunters at Mich. Base
Victim Identified in Fla. Face-chewing Attack
Radioactive Bluefin Tuna Crossed the Pacific
90 Guns Seized, Dozens Arrested in Oakland
Raw Video: Hail Storm Batters Oklahoma City
6-Year-Old Going to National Spelling Bee
California's Foie Gras Ban About to Begin
Video Essay: Funky Winkerbean Comic Turns 40
Hurricane Andrew Remembered, 20 Years Later
Judge's Ruling Halts Tenn. Mosque Construction
Romney in Las Vegas on Texas Primary Day
Sister Says She Reported Brother in Patz Killing
Even Fla. Police Shocked by Face-Mauling Attack
Angry Birds Spreading Their Wings
