|
Dalton
Roberts |
||
|
|
Dalton Roberts is one of the most interesting and multi-talented persons
you are ever likely to know. He is a politician, humorist, poet, teacher, songwriter,
musician, author, columnist and more. As a politician, he served in the highest
elective office in his home county in Tennessee, that of Hamilton County
Executive. During his
tenure his administration won over 100 national awards for excellence. As a songwriter and musician, he has played the
Grand Ole Opry, and had over 80 songs recorded.
One of his songs hit number one on the charts, and another was
chosen as theme song for an NBC-TV show. His weekly column in the Chattanooga Times Free
Press features humor, politics, religion, philosophy, and just about
anything of human interest that fascinates his uncommon curiosity. Dalton’s raising took place in a Tennessee
community called Watering Trough, so named because of a cool spring
water outlet. It’s
believed Civil War soldiers and their horses drank from the Missionary
Ridge spring. Years later a pipe was installed and the trough
was bricked up in to cool milk or a summer melon.
Thousands of travelers and residents can tell you about drinking
from the spring. It’s
still there today. Take
your jug or cup and refresh yourself, as Dalton still does. Dalton grew up surrounded by books.
His mother not only loved to read, she wrote letters, with pen
pals all over the world. There
was music in Dalton’s home, too.
Uncle Van loved Jimmy Rodgers’ songs and would bring his
guitar for family-singing evenings. When Dalton was 13, his uncle taught him to play
three chords, and by the time he was 15 his fingers were calloused
enough to convince his daddy that he should have his own guitar. “Our home was the center of the
neighborhood,” Dalton recalls. “It
was wide open to kids and even hoboes came by to eat.
Mother was a very nurturing woman, always with time to help
someone, maybe because her grandfather was a full-blooded Cherokee. “Daddy wrote Mother a love note every day.
He cooked breakfast every morning, too.
Mother would read into the night and Daddy would get up early and
fix her breakfast. Daddy
was a minister, and he pastored many churches over the years.” All this produced a man who learned to be
reasonable, responsible, and responsive; steady as a rock; a man who
will tell the truth. Sometimes
he lays it out in song, sometimes on the editorial page, sometimes in a
book. Dalton is good with good-old-boy chatter, too;
much sought to fill the after-dinner speaking slot, when the crowd
hankers for a tale with a salty peppered twist. Dalton was born with a special pair of
crap-filtering looking glasses; blessed with magical powers, they bend
and fold into periscope or telescope, allowing viewing privileges around
corners or into the future to the “possibilities” plane; the
how-things-could-be level of thinking; otherwise known as visionary. Since retiring from politics, Dalton’s vision
has honed in on music, writing, and keeping the backyard feeders filled
for his favorite feathered friends.
He plays regularly and records often. Besides his weekly column for the Chattanooga
Times Free Press, he writes magazine articles, inspirational and humor
books, and letters to family and friends all over the world.
He keeps a daily journal and rumor has it he’s started a novel.
Portions of About the Author reprinted from “People who love Chattanooga,” Chattanooga Great Places, 1996, by Linda L. Burton. This article has been updated for timeliness.
|