Bobby was 56 years old when he passed away. He was the founder and owner of Simp McGhee's restaurant on Bank Street. He founded Simp McGee's in l986.
He was a graduate of our class of 59 and a 1966 graduate of Athens College in Athens, Alabama. He graduated from officer candidate school in l967 and served as an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War.
He also was a wood sculptor, he crafted all of the woodwork and carvings in the restaurant he founded.
At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Jenny Lind Patton Riddle, one daughter and his mother.
BOBBY WAS KNOWN FOR HIS TAP DANCING. HE COULD REALLY MAKE THOSE TAPS CLICK. I LOVED TO TAP DANCE ALSO SO, IT WAS ALWAYS WAS AN INSPIRATION TO WATCH HIM PERFORM. DOUGLAS ANN LIVINGSTON
I think Bobby and I were the very best of friends through high school and later. I remember when I first met his mom. I was always with the wise guy cracking jokes routine and his mom did not know how to take me. I really wasn't thaaat bad! But anyway he clued me in and his mom and I became good friends. I remember when Bobby told me about Simps and I told him he didn't know the restaurant business. But he said he was getting this chef from New Orleans and others and by golly it became a signature eating experience. He and Jenny paid their dues in that pursuit. No matter what eatery opened, it never affected their business, and to this day it still has a loyal clientele.(Mcrae that means customers). After Bobby got cancer and had that gosh awful surgery, I could tell how bad it was on him, and of course it came back and took his life in 1997. I still miss him today.
I was standing at the bar in the Pacific Hotel in Vung Tau, Vietnam one day in the spring of 1968, drinking a Pepsi, of course, when I noticed a young, scrawny lieutenant, covered with red dust,some caked to his face by sweat, walk in. This was not unusual because the hotel served as the officers club for the area and billets for officers coming to Vung Tau for R&R(Rest & Relaxation for you civilians). Vung Tau was an in-country R&R center, situated at the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the South China Sea, just north of the Mekong Delta. Goegraphy made it a very safe area, and good luck made it my home for a year.
I usually did not pay much attention to the grubby souls coming in from the boonies to clean up and get a good night's sleep in air conditioned comfort(which our BOQ's did not have)since they were here today and gone tomorrow, but something about this one looked familiar. As he got closer I could see his name tag and his face, and they both said "Riddle." "Bobby," I said, "is that you?" He was as surprised as I was, and blurted out "Richard, what are you doing here," which was a good question.
We talked for awhile, catching each other up on what had happened in our lives since high school. Bobby was with a Unit operating down in the Delta, where living conditions were austere to say the least. My ammunition company supplied them their ammo needs, and units in the Delta needed a lot.One of the things we talked about was what a great basketball player Bobby had been in high school. I only played with him in PE, but I recalled how I would be dribbling down court and Bobby, with his quick, nimble hands and fast feet would deftly steal the ball and take it in for a lay up almost before I knew it was gone. He could steal the ball from good players too, like George McCary, not just klutzes like me.
Bobby was hot, tired, and hungry so he went on his way after we wished each other good luck. Luck was with us because we both got home in one piece.
I might have seen Bobby once more in Vung Tau, but I never saw him again back home, although I ate at Simps several times while he was still alive. Every time I went there, my mind's eye would see a wiry kid in gym shorts playing "shirts and skins" and a young lieutenant in dirty jungle fatigues, and I still see him that way today. RFA
Pattie Craig (Jett)
Bobby was 56 years old when he passed away. He was the founder and owner of Simp McGhee's restaurant on Bank Street. He founded Simp McGee's in l986.He was a graduate of our class of 59 and a 1966 graduate of Athens College in Athens, Alabama. He graduated from officer candidate school in l967 and served as an intelligence officer during the Vietnam War.
He also was a wood sculptor, he crafted all of the woodwork and carvings in the restaurant he founded.
At the time of his death he was survived by his wife Jenny Lind Patton Riddle, one daughter and his mother.
He died on December 28,1997 of cancer.
Douglas Ann Thrasher (Livingston . )
BOBBY WAS KNOWN FOR HIS TAP DANCING. HE COULD REALLY MAKE THOSE TAPS CLICK. I LOVED TO TAP DANCE ALSO SO, IT WAS ALWAYS WAS AN INSPIRATION TO WATCH HIM PERFORM.
DOUGLAS ANN LIVINGSTON
Eddie Tiller
I think Bobby and I were the very best of friends through high school and later. I remember when I first met his mom. I was always with the wise guy cracking jokes routine and his mom did not know how to take me. I really wasn't thaaat bad! But anyway he clued me in and his mom and I became good friends. I remember when Bobby told me about Simps and I told him he didn't know the restaurant business. But he said he was getting this chef from New Orleans and others and by golly it became a signature eating experience. He and Jenny paid their dues in that pursuit. No matter what eatery opened, it never affected their business, and to this day it still has a loyal clientele.(Mcrae that means customers). After Bobby got cancer and had that gosh awful surgery, I could tell how bad it was on him, and of course it came back and took his life in 1997. I still miss him today.Richard Allen
I was standing at the bar in the Pacific Hotel in Vung Tau, Vietnam one day in the spring of 1968, drinking a Pepsi, of course, when I noticed a young, scrawny lieutenant, covered with red dust,some caked to his face by sweat, walk in. This was not unusual because the hotel served as the officers club for the area and billets for officers coming to Vung Tau for R&R(Rest & Relaxation for you civilians). Vung Tau was an in-country R&R center, situated at the tip of a peninsula jutting out into the South China Sea, just north of the Mekong Delta. Goegraphy made it a very safe area, and good luck made it my home for a year.I usually did not pay much attention to the grubby souls coming in from the boonies to clean up and get a good night's sleep in air conditioned comfort(which our BOQ's did not have)since they were here today and gone tomorrow, but something about this one looked familiar. As he got closer I could see his name tag and his face, and they both said "Riddle." "Bobby," I said, "is that you?" He was as surprised as I was, and blurted out "Richard, what are you doing here," which was a good question.
We talked for awhile, catching each other up on what had happened in our lives since high school. Bobby was with a Unit operating down in the Delta, where living conditions were austere to say the least. My ammunition company supplied them their ammo needs, and units in the Delta needed a lot.One of the things we talked about was what a great basketball player Bobby had been in high school. I only played with him in PE, but I recalled how I would be dribbling down court and Bobby, with his quick, nimble hands and fast feet would deftly steal the ball and take it in for a lay up almost before I knew it was gone. He could steal the ball from good players too, like George McCary, not just klutzes like me.
Bobby was hot, tired, and hungry so he went on his way after we wished each other good luck. Luck was with us because we both got home in one piece.
I might have seen Bobby once more in Vung Tau, but I never saw him again back home, although I ate at Simps several times while he was still alive. Every time I went there, my mind's eye would see a wiry kid in gym shorts playing "shirts and skins" and a young lieutenant in dirty jungle fatigues, and I still see him that way today. RFA
Bob Thomas