Franklin-Stephens County GaArchives Biographies.....Roberts, Doyle September 21, 1918 - February 19, 2010
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File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by:
Tiffany Carson TMC3172@1ffc.com June 8, 2010, 8:05 am

Source: Tiffany Carson
Author: Tiffany Carson

Doyle Roberts

Born September 21, 1918 – February 19, 2010

He was first called the Turnip Man in 1991 for growing a nine pound turnip. 
Then he became known for his black walnuts.  He shipped black walnuts to folks 
all over the South.  His black walnuts became famous around Franklin & Stephens 
Counties.  The Toccoa Record called him the “The Green Bean” man in August 
2009.  You could find him breaking green beans sitting at the Stephens County 
Farmers market.  Doyle has been a familiar face with the Stephens County 
Farmers market since the 1970’s.  

Some call him Mr. Doyle, Pop, Papa Doyle, Granddaddy, Pops or even Poppy Doyle 
as some of the great great grandchildren call him.  

Doyle Roberts was born in Franklin County, Georgia on September 21, 1918. He 
was the son of the late James (Jim) Clayton Roberts and the late Genie Thomson 
Roberts. His granddaughter asked him one time why he didn’t have a middle name 
and he said his parents just never gave him one.  

Doyle had four brothers and four sisters.  He was the brother of the late Lily 
Roberts who died of pneumonia at the age of 3.  He was the brother of the late 
Luther Roberts, the late Frank Roberts, the late Ruth Smith & the late John 
Henry Roberts.  His surviving brother and sisters are Fletcher Roberts of 
Toccoa who is 94, Lucille Roberts Coker of Toccoa & Bertie Mae Roberts of 
Toccoa.  

He is preceded in death by his wife Blanche Moore Roberts who passed away on 
June 10, 2002 and son Buddy Jim Roberts who passed away on December 13, 2000.  

Survivors include his son William Roberts of Martin, daughter Mary Nell 
Anderson of Toccoa, daughter Emma Hyde of Martin & daughter-in-law Mrs. Connie 
Roberts of Lavonia.

Doyle has eight surviving grandchildren that include Gail Davis of Anderson, 
South Carolina, Hugh Bryant of Lavonia, Howard Roberts of Martin, Lisa Atkinson 
of Martin, Tonya Adams of Martin, Tiffany Carson of Carnesville, Jim Roberts of 
Martin and Kimberly Roberts Ellis of Martin.  Doyle has twelve Great 
Grandchildren and six Great Great Grandchildren.  

Some of Doyle’s close friends included the late Nell Dean, Richard & Carol 
Corwin of Toccoa & neighbor Tommie Stubs of Toccoa.  

Doyle spent most of his childhood in Franklin County.  His father and mother 
were sharecroppers.  Doyle’s father moved the family to Crump’s Bridge Rd in 
Red Hill to become a sharecropper with Doc Vandiver in the late 40’s.  The old 
home place still stands on Crump’s Bridge Rd.  Doyle’s father never owned his 
own land nor his own home.  In 1947, Doyle & his brothers saved up enough money 
to build their father a house on Baty Road.  They used the leftover lumber from 
the local sawmill to build the house.  The original home place still stands on 
Baty Road where Doyle’s youngest daughter Emma presently lives. Doyle’s father 
moved into his new home with his son John Henry who had just returned home from 
the war and Doyle’s two younger sisters Lucille and Bertie Mae.

Doyle farmed all his life.  He started farming when he was a kid growing up in 
rural Franklin County.  He attended Tom’s Creek School from 1936-1937.  Doyle 
attended school until the 7th grade.  

It was said by his grandsons that during Doyle’s childhood he wanted to buy a 
guitar.  He worked in the field picking up the rocks for 25 cents a day.  He 
saved up $7.00 to buy the guitar.  Later in his teens he used this same guitar 
to serenade his future bride.  He rode his bicycle over to her house and would 
sing to her.  His children said he used to sing “Wildflowers” to them.  

Doyle married his bride Blanche Roberts on December 24, 1938.  Doyle was 20 
years old at the time.  Blanche was 18.  They were married for 64 years.

During the 1940’s he took a job at cotton mill called Cramerton Mills in 
Cramerton, North Carolina.  He started to work there in January 1943 and worked 
until May 1944.  He made fifty cents an hour. 

When he worked at the cotton mill in North Carolina—the family would come home 
on the weekends back to Georgia.  The whole family rode the motorcycle home.  
That included his wife and two small children. His oldest son William rode in 
front of Doyle on the gas tank.  His wife sat behind him and Buddy his second 
son would ride between Doyle & Blanche. They rode back and forth to Georgia 
like this. It was 145 miles to Cramerton, NC where Doyle worked at the cotton 
mill.  When the third child Nell came along Granny Blanche would hold her in 
her arms on the ride. 

During the time he worked in North Carolina.  There was a river that ran by the 
cotton mill.  Papa Doyle got to noticing the carp in the river. So one day he 
took apart his gun & packed it away in his saddle bag and went to work.  Later 
that day he put his gun back together and went “a fishing”.  He shot the water 
above where the carp were swimming.  It blew the carp out of the water onto the 
bank.  Papa Doyle had caught the big one.  He pack his gun back up and the 
loaded the fish on his motorcycle.  He got home and filled the bath tub with 
water and put the fish into the tub.  He kept the fish in the bath tub till he 
was ready to have fish for dinner.  Now that is a fish tale to tell to the 
grandkids!

He was drafted into the United States Navy in 1944 and was Honorably Discharged 
from the Navy on November 15, 1945. Doyle was 26 when he was drafted.  He was 
married and had two children at the time of his call to duty.  He completed his 
basic training at Camp Peary in Virginia.  He finished his training there in 
July 1944.

Doyle’s ship was commissioned on November 10, 1944.  Doyle’s position in the 
Navy was a Coxswain-SV-6, USNR on the Circe AK 25 Ship. He was a Seaman Second 
Class.  He was the gun loader.  There were three men to one gun.  A man would 
hand him the ammunition and he would load the gun.  Another man would fire it.  
While doing this the bullet had to be loaded exactly right or the gun would 
jam.  Doyle said that he never let it jam.  He always put it in just right.  He 
said while they were fighting—he could never look to see what was going on.  If 
you did look up—you would see the enemy coming after you. The Circe received 
one battle star for World War II service. Part of his tour he was stationed in 
Hawaii.  While in Hawaii Doyle said there was a pineapple factory on the 
island.  It was the Dole Pineapple Factory.  He said you could smell pineapples 
for miles.  He said it was the sweetest smell that you could never forget.  
Glenard Justice was a shipmate on the USS Circe with Papa Doyle.  He used to 
tell the story of how he got sea sick while on the ship and his friend Doyle 
Roberts would feed him crackers to ease the sickness.  When Doyle’s oldest son 
William was growing up and Papa Doyle would take him deep sea fishing…when 
William would get sick—Pop would pull out the crackers.

In August of 1944 his third child was born.  This was during his service time.  
He came back to Georgia to see his new baby.  On his way back to duty his bus 
broke down.  Two of his brothers came to the rescue on their motorcycles. They 
picked Doyle up and took him to catch another bus.   After he was loaded up on 
the second bus—it broke down!  This caused him to be even later returning to 
duty. For his punishment—he was sent to the Brig. The Navy’s Brig was a secure 
area in ship, which was used as a prison while the ship is at sea He had to 
spend three days in the hole because of his tardiness.  He said he peeled 
bushels and bushels of potatoes, carrots and onions.

When Doyle returned home from the war he went straight to work in a local saw 
mill.  He worked at the Singer Furniture Factory in Toccoa. He worked at 
another factory in Toccoa called Troglan Furniture Factory as well as Brady’s 
Welding Shop. When Doyle was in his 80’s he worked for Henry Buffington in his 
local saw mill on Baty Rd in Martin.  

Doyle and his four children settled on Baty Rd in December of 1946.  When he 
moved his family to Baty Rd. he bought 103 acres of land.  There he raised 
cattle & had acres and acres of farmland.  If you lived on Baty Rd you knew of 
Doyle Roberts.  He was everyone’s friend and neighbor. He was everyone’s “Papa” 
on Baty Rd.  Doyle Roberts was the kind of neighbor you wanted on all sides of 
you. 

In the 50’s Doyle and his wife picked cotton for a living.  He and Granny 
Blanche picked 1200 lbs of cotton in one day.  Pop picked 700 lbs while Granny 
Blanche picked 500 lbs.  They made it their goal to pick 1200 lbs each day 
because 1200 lbs of cotton would make one bale of Gin Cotton.  During this time 
Doyle’s brother in law Leatus “Wimpy” Andrews was picking cotton with Doyle.  
Leatus thought he was doing well because he was ahead of Doyle and was proud of 
his how far he had gotten on his row. Doyle kept a steady pass with Leatus. 
After awhile he realized the reason Doyle hadn’t passed him was because he was 
picking two rows to his one!  Doyle was out “pickin” him in the cotton patch.

Before Doyle ever owned a truck, he had several motorcycles.  One of which was 
a 1934 Harley Davison Spirit. Doyle did not own a car until the 1950’s.  He 
sold his motorcycle to his brother and bought his first truck—a 1950 Model 
Dodge.  To this day—he drives a Dodge.  

Doyle is a lifetime member of the VFW post #4346 in Toccoa, Georgia.  Doyle 
served as a VFW Commander 1989-1994.  Doyle served the following positions at 
the VFW Post:  District Commander 1989-1990, District 13 Jr Vice Commander 1988-
1989, Post Commander 1989-1990, Post Sr. Vice Commander 1989-1990, Post Jr. 
Vice Commander 1987-1988, Post Surgeon, 1964-1984, District 13 Sr. Vice 
Commander 1982-1983, District 13 Commander 1983-1984, Post Surgeon 1969-1983, 
Post Surgeon 1969-1980, Past Post Commander 1989-1994.  Doyle has always been 
known to help people. While serving at the VFW…Doyle would always assist and 
try to help the Veterans get into the VA Hosptial. He tried to help as many as 
he could.  He was always wanting to lend a hand.

In the 60’s he became a member of the Masonic Grove Lodge in Red Hill.  He was 
a dedicated Shriner.  On June 30, 1973 Doyle & his son in law Joe Anderson 
completed the Shriner’s initiation in Atlanta, Georgia.  

In the late 70’s and 80’s Doyle could be seen in disguise during the local 
Christmas parades.  There was always a certain clown riding a bicycle that 
looked like it had an air bubble in the tire.  You could see the clown bobbing 
up and down for miles during the parades.  That clown was Doyle Roberts. To 
this day—the bicycle still rides the same.  His good friend Carol tried riding 
it a few weeks ago and the chain popped off.  She told Papa Doyle that he had 
sabotaged it just for her.

Doyle was always acting like a clown.  One time he decided to try riding his 
bicycle backwards while he was at his cousin Curtis Segars house. It had been 
raining that day so there were many mudpuddles.  He fell off of the bicycle & 
landed in one of the mud holes.  

Doyle always saved aluminan cans.  He would save enough till he had a truck 
load and take them to Martin to cash them in.  One day him and his 
granddaughter Tiffany were taking a load to cash in. They took the backroads 
all the way to town.  Before they got to the city limits—they got to noticing 
cans flying out on the dirt road behind them. They pulled over and saw that 
they cans had come loose and were flying out.  They had to pick up the cans all 
over the road and tie them back down. Good thing they hadn’t reached Hwy 17 or 
they would have had to chase the cans down…along with dodging the cars.

Would you believe Papa Doyle still had the same set of teeth for 90 years?  He 
would always brush them “very well” and then put some snuff in his mouth 
afterwards.  Back in late 2009 Nell had cooked him some fat back.  She warned 
him it was really hard and that he would knock his teeth out…she had went to 
tend to the garden and when she came back he was still eating the fat back—
needless to say—without a tooth! It had broken off while he was eating.  Too 
this day—Papa Doyle never found the tooth.

Doyle was a member of Broad River Baptist church, but he would tell you his 
church was Compassion Baptist Church in Carnesville, Georgia. Where he was well 
known for his statement “I’m Ready!” He sat on the second pew beside his fellow 
Baty Road neighbor “Sandman”.    He loved to hear the old time hymns and hear 
the boys play the guitars.  He always liked to hear “I’ll have a New Life”.  
One Sunday Pop was on his way to church.  Would you believe a 90 year old man 
was pulled over for speeding?  He was coasting down the mountain into town and 
the men in blue got him. They let him go—I guess they knew better to give a 90 
year old man a ticket on the way to Sunday service.  

Pop loved to read the Anderson Independent Paper.  Nell said he would read it 
for hours. Cover to cover.  He had to keep up to date with all the excitement 
going on in the world.

Pop was known for many other things beside his walnuts & gardening.  He was a 
darn good bee keeper.  He would never wear the suit to get the honey. He always 
told him grandsons that if you are scared of the bees—they will know it.  You 
just can’t let them see the fear.  If a bee landed on him—he would knock it 
off. If he ever got stuck by a bee—he would smack it off and keep going.  He 
never swelled up or ever reacted to a bee sting like a normal person. If one of 
the kids ever got a bee sting, he would put some of his snuff on the spot to 
draw out the poison.


He had birddogs during his life & also had a favorite bull name Charlie. He 
raised cattle on his farm.  With the help of his children—Doyle had become a 
successful man on Baty Road.  Too many—this would be riches, but to his family—
the successfulness is the hard work, honesty, love, and determination to live 
life to the fullest.

Doyle was a friend to everyone. If you knew Doyle Roberts—you knew a good man, 
a good neighbor, a good father, grandfather and a wonderful friend. 

Today Doyle has gone on to be with the Lord.  He has reached his home in 
Heaven.  He has reached the Promised Land that his pastor Leon Carson was 
always preaching about. He has reached his Beulah Land.  


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