Graveside services for Robert Glenn Forbus, Sr. will be held at the Delta Community Cemetery on Saturday, September 7, 2019 at 10:00 A.M. The Rev. David Morris will officiate.
Robert Glenn Forbus, Sr, a resident of Delta, AL, who was born on November 24, 1941, and who was known to all as Glenn, died on September 4, 2019 in Clay County Hospital. He struggled with multiple health problems, including dementia, for the last years of his life. A retired poultry and cattle farmer, Glenn was married to Glyndia (Vickers) for 58 years. Sweethearts at Lineville High School, he was class of 1960, they married June 4, 1961, just after Glyndia was graduated from LHS. They have one adult child, Robert, Jr., born April 17, 1962, who is a university professor in Connecticut.
Glenn loved living and working in Clay County, and spent the vast majority of his years living on the same farm that his father and mother bought shortly after the end of World War II. The only times he ventured far from the farm were in the 1960’s when he worked for Norwood Hodges Volkswagen in Anniston, AL, where he managed first the parts department and later the service department. Hodges was a business mentor to Glenn and encouraged him to buy a struggling NAPA Auto Parts dealership in Opp, AL in 1971. Making that dealership profitable in just three years, Glenn sold it to a trusted competitor and moved to Macon, GA, where he worked for Southern Natural Gas from 1974 to 1976.
In 1976 Glenn returned to his beloved Delta farm and invested the profits from his former auto parts business into a poultry and cattle operation. Starting with just 30,000 chickens and a few head of cattle, he grew the farm to more than 80,000 chickens and a few hundred cattle. Between starting his farming operation in 1976 and retiring in 2003, he helped found a propane gas cooperative that allowed poultry farmers to better control their costs of doing business; operated a fertilizer business, providing both sales and spreading services; and held membership in both the Alabama Cattleman’s Association and the Alabama Poultry and Egg Association.
A former member of the Army National Guard, Glenn was fiercely patriotic and a life-long political conservative. In the early years of his retirement, he enjoyed waterskiing, traveling the U.S. and parts of Canada in his treasured RV rig, and improving his cooking skills with the help of chef’s shows on the Food Network. Glenn was a Baptist of strong faith who demonstrated his faith through his generosity to others. Glenn was preceded in death by his parents Albert and Volera Parker Forbus. Left to mourn his passing are a sister, Jane Forbus Williams (David); his wife, Glyndia; a son, Robert (Scott); and a host of other relatives and friends.
The family will receive friends at Benefield Funeral Home in Lineville, Friday from 5:30 to 7:30. In lieu of flowers, food or gifts, the family requests contributions be made to the Dementia Society of America, PO Box 600, Doylestown, PA 18901.
Memories may be shared or condolences left at benefieldfuneralhome.com. Benefield Funeral Home of Lineville is in charge of these arrangements.
