Recalling Johnny Roberts

Longtime Port Aransas businessman died Oct. 13



Johnny Roberts

Johnny Roberts

Longtime Port Aransas businessman Johnny Roberts, a World War II combat veteran and former city councilman who was part of a pioneering Mustang Island family, has died.

Roberts, 89, died of congestive heart failure on Sunday, Oct. 13, at Bay Area Heart Hospital in Corpus Christi, according to his daughter, Niki Haley of Port Aransas.

Roberts owned a wide variety of businesses in Port Aransas over a period of decades. He owned or was landlord of properties that housed restaurants, nightclubs, a surf shop, a surfboard making business, laundries, a mobile home park and an equipment and motorcycle rental shop. He also owned vacation rental houses and was involved in other aspects of the real estate business.

While wheeling and dealing in Port Aransas, he also worked full time as a service manager for Westinghouse in Corpus Christi.

“He was a straight shooter, always honorable in his dealings and had a real eye for the right kind of property to buy and the right kinds of businesses to get into,” said Family Center IGA co-owner and store director Mike Hall, who served on the Port Aransas Planning and Zoning Commission during the 1980s.Roberts was born May 29, 1924, on Long Island, N.Y. His parents were Samuel Eben Doane and Laura Veeser Doane. Just 2 years old when his father died, he later was adopted by his stepfather, Ed Roberts.

Roberts’ grandparents were Florida and Elda Mae Roberts, who were among Mustang Island’s earliest residents. Roberts Point Park was named after the Roberts family.

Roberts and his immediate family moved to Port Aransas in the mid-1930s, when he was 11. He was an Eagle Scout and ended up being among the first graduates of Port Aransas High school in 1942, according to his family.

Following graduation, he studied electronics in San Antonio, at Texas A&I in Kingsville (now Texas A&M University-Kingsville) and at Philco Airborne Radio in Philadelphia.

He joined the Air Force in 1943 and married Carrobelle “Pudge” Goodwin the following year. They would remain married for 65 years, until her death in 2009.

Not long after enlisting in the Air Force, Roberts found himself involved in World War II combat.

In an interview with the South Jetty in 2006, Roberts said he was “tired of doing KP at Fort Sam Houston in San Antonio” when a man came around and asked if anybody was interested in the Army Air Corps. Roberts volunteered.

“I was bulletproof,” he recalled. “They said there was a 50 percent chance of coming back. I said to myself, ‘Well, I’ll be one of the 50 percent that comes back.’ ”

Roberts flew 21 combat missions as radio operator/ gunner aboard B-17s before being shot down over Germany in April 1945. He parachuted from the plane before it crashed.

“I didn’t count 10, I’ll tell you,” he laughed, referring to advice to aircrews to leave the aircraft and then count to 10 before pulling the ripcord that opened their parachute.

Roberts eventually made his way to Paris, where he managed to get word to his family that he still was alive. He returned to the U.S. aboard the Queen Mary that December, arriving home to his new wife and new daughter on Christmas Eve.

Roberts continued his education in Chicago, earning an electronics degree and becoming involved in the television industry in Pennsylvania.

He was transferred to Dallas and then to Corpus Christi in 1954, returning to Port Aransas in 1960.

Roberts’ many business ventures included a popular ice cream shop Custard’s Last Stand, which occupied the same building currently housing the Venetian Hotplate, a restaurant at the corner of Station and Beach streets.

For years, Roberts also owned the building where La Playa Mexican Grille, 222 Beach Street, currently operates. (The building, which once housed the South Jetty, now is owned by Greg Villasana, who also owns the restaurant.) In the 1960s, Roberts ran a surf shop called Beachway in the building. The shop rented surfboards, scooters and more.

Roberts still owns the building where Beach and Station Street Grill operates, but he doesn’t own the business, Haley said.

Roberts once owned the building where Sharkey’s Beach Club is now. Several different nightclubs, including one called Doc’s Landing, operated there while Roberts owned the structure.

“He helped many young entrepreneurs get their start, and he was a visionary man with a strong sense of civic duty,” Haley said.

Roberts served on the school board from 1962 to 1964, according to staff at the offices of the Port Aransas Independent School District.

City records indicate that he was elected to a term on the Port Aransas City Council in 1969. He later served on the city’s planning and zoning commission. His daughter said he was the commission’s first chairman.

Mark Creighton served with Roberts on the commission.

“He was so quiet, and not a demonstrative person, but he was the institutional memory that the planning and zoning commission had,” Creighton said. “Often, things come up that at first seem obvious but later turn out to be wrong, because you don’t know all the facts. He was the kind of guy who would let everybody talk and hypothesize and then very quietly point out all the things he either had records of or had knowledge of that would make everyone look at things a different way.”

Roberts helped found the Port Aransas Chamber of Commerce-Tourist Bureau and was a charter member of the Rotary Club, Haley said.

Roberts rode out a number of hurricanes in Port Aransas. In an interview with the South Jetty in 2010, he said the worst one was the landmark Hurricane Celia in 1970. He and others stayed in his house on Anchor Drive during the first half of the storm.

“When it began to hit the house with full force, I looked up in the attic, and I could see the roof beginning to breathe up and down,” Roberts said. “I said to the group, ‘I don’t think I’ve ever seen wind like this before, and I think we’d better go downstairs.’ ”

After the eye passed over, they left the house for a safer place: An underground garage on the property commonly known over the years as Summer Place, on 12th Street.

Despite the occasional hurricane, Roberts “loved the Gulf of Mexico, and spent most of his life swimming, surfing, fishing and boating in local waters,” Haley said. “He passed his love of the sea to his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren, making many wonderful memories with them over the years.”

Roberts “never met a stranger and enjoyed friendships from around the world and from all walks of life,” his daughter said. “He will be remembered fondly by all who knew him.”

In addition to his wife, Roberts was preceded in death by his parents, his sister Lulu Doane of Rio Vista, and a son, David Eben Roberts of Medford, Ore.

In addition to Haley, he is survived by Haley’s husband, Randy, and four grandsons and five great-grandchildren.

At Roberts’ request, no services will be held.

“But he asks that you raise a glass and cherish the memories,” Haley said.

Donations may be made to the Port Aransas Education Foundation, P.O. Box 95, Port Aransas, TX 78373, one of his favorite causes, she said.


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