- R.L. Munsey was born to Albert (Pooh) and Anna Elizabeth Munsey on April 17, 1922 in Cloud Creek, Tennessee. Bob was the second oldest of ten children, Mary, Howard, Harold (Bud) Ben, Herb, Glen, Otis, Ralph and Claudia.
Life for dad started in a sharecropper’s cabin with no electricity, running water, indoor plumbing or stove and his mother cooked the family meals over the fireplace. In 1922, these folks were referred to as dirt poor.
Dad’s first job outside the family, at age 19, was at the Brumley Hotel in Greenville Tennessee. Steven J. Darby was the assistant to the manager and gave dad the job of ordering food for the restaurant, a job he told dad was the most important job in the food service industry, “you want to use all of the food and not throw any away.” This job helped to define dad’s successful career in the food service business. Dad was not only the food supply guy, he made up the menus every day and when the cook didn’t show up, which was often, he would fill in, learning how to make the main dishes and all of the restaurant’s soups.
Dad interrupted his restaurant career when Pearl Harbor was bombed to enlist in the Navy and was sent to the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in Illinois. On leave and back home in Tennessee in 1942, he met a young woman named Dorothy Millar who was visiting with a friend from Chilkoot College in Missouri. Dad was on his way to Chicago for Officer training and was sent to the University of Chicago to train in Navy Intelligence. Dorothy was also in Chicago now working as a secretary at the Merchandise Mart and they renewed their friendship. Friendship turned to love and Bob and Dorothy were married in Des Plaines, Illinois by a family friend and preacher, Valentino. After the wedding, Dorothy went home to Jamestown, North Dakota and dad’s schooling was interrupted by the war and he was sent to the South Pacific where he quickly rose to the rank of Chief Petty Officer.
He served with Admiral William Bull Halsey as a code breaker and was on the bridge as a communication expert. He was in the second assault wave at Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. He was in the first wave at Kwajalein Atoll and was on the bridge with Admiral Halsey during the battle of Midway. Their ship took two Kamikaze hits in one day and dad was uninjured in those attacks. For the last two years of the war dad was sent to Guam where he worked for Navy Intelligence and code breaking. While in Guam they were subject to constant sniper fire and once again dad was uninjured. His team was successful in triangulating the Japanese fleet in 1944, which led to victory in the battle of the Philippine Sea. As a result of the work performed by dad’s team, they were invited to the peace signing by General Douglas MacArthur; unfortunately, the two pilots of the B-25 that they were to fly on were so drunk that the team didn’t get on the planes. Dad let it go, they were both 20 years old and were celebrating the peace signings.
After the war dad came home to a strange land, Jamestown, North Dakota, where Mom was pregnant with Mike and waiting with a four-year old son, Bob Jr.
After trying life in North Dakota, dad, mom and Bobby moved to Tennessee where dad restarted his hotel and restaurant career. Mom didn’t like Tennessee and missed her family, so she and her mother, Mary Millar plotted to get dad a job in Jamestown. Paul Artz was contacted by mom and grandma and he offered dad a job to manage the Gladstone Hotel and restaurant, and the Blue Blazer Lounge run by two of the best bartender’s in North Dakota, Mac McGilvery and Jerry Dunn. Before long dad was managing the Hillcrest Country Club and their restaurant. Not long after that dad was also managing the Majestic Café on main street and the Drive-in on 10th street where the Taco Bell is now. Dad was a go-getter and managing all four of these restaurants was par for the course for him.
During this time dad and the men of Jamestown started a singing group called the Choralaires which was a big success.
Dad was asked to manage the Jamestown Elks Club and signed on while staying at the Gladstone Hotel, now as an owner in partnership with Tony and Joe Ebertz along with a few silent partners. This partnership grew over the years, adding the buildings and ownership of Big and Little Jim’s restaurants and Polar Liquor off sale. Big Jim’s became the crowning glory of his career and the best restaurant in the state, serving great steaks and seafood along with fresh baked pastries. Dad hired Mrs. Permian, a farm homemaker to make pies, cakes, brownies and rolls each day. Truckers changed their routes to get these fresh baked treats.
About this time the businessmen of Jamestown wanted more than the nine holes of golf provided by the Hillcrest Golf Course, so with land donated by a friend, these folks went to work every day at 5pm picking rock, clearing the land and planting most of the trees for the new private golf course. As with the Choralaires, they were all charter members of the Jamestown Country Club.
Bob Munsey was the President of the North Dakota Liquor Dealers Association and the Restaurant Association. Dad was an assistant Scout Master that accompanied the young scouts on camping jamborees around the state and weekends at Spiritwood Lake. Dad was an avid hunter, loved to fish, and took advantage of all that North Dakota had to offer. As children we had great fun hunting and fishing with him and his friends. Dad was a lifetime member of Ducks Unlimited.
Dad and Roy Wentz built a boat from a kit bought at Sears. It was a big speed boat and almost every kid in Jamestown learned how to water ski behind it. We had a skiing picnic on the dam almost every Sunday.
Almost all of dad’s employees and most of our friends called dad, uncle Bob. It was because he treated them as if they were part of our family, and actually a few of them moved into our home and became part of the family.
Bob and Dorothy Munsey raised nine children, Robert, Michael, (Ann) David, (Bonita) Mary, John, Elizabeth, (Gene) Patricia, Paul and Thomas. The tenth child, Steven, passed four hours after birth. Dad enjoyed eleven grandchildren and five great grandchildren. Bob was preceded in death by his brothers Ben, Harold, (Bud) Howard, Glen, Herb and Ralph, his sister Mary, our mom, Dorothy and our brothers, Steven and Paul.
Dad retired at the age 70 and moved to Tennessee to be closer to his family but moved back to Jamestown after a few years - he loved North Dakota. Dad left his home three years ago and became a resident of Ave Maria Care Center. Recently he moved to a care center in Minneapolis to be close to his daughter Patty and his grandchildren, Angie and Taylor.
Adapted from Eddy Funeral Home obituary
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1922 - 2020 (98 years)
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