Robert Lee Bobbitt

After Carlisle Military Academy in Arlington, Bobbitt worked his way through school, waiting tables, mowing lawns and clerking in the Capitol library. In World War I he enlisted as a private and finished as a field artillery captain without seeing combat. Representing Webb and Zapata counties, he fought a bill to restore the political rights of impeached governor James Ferguson, and as Judiciary Committee chairman in 1927 he worked to reform the state's appeals courts. He died in 1972, and the rest area here bears his name.

What the plaque says

Robert Lee Bobbitt was born near Hillsboro, Texas, the son of Joseph A. and Laura Duff Bobbitt. He graduated from North Texas Normal College in 1911, and from the University of Texas Law School in 1915. After opening a law practice in Laredo, Bobbitt married Mary B. Westbrook on April 20, 1918, while an officer in the 90th Infantry Division during World War I. Bobbitt was elected to the Texas Legislature in 1923, served three two-year terms, the last as Speaker of the House of Representatives, and was appointed Attorney General in 1929. He returned to private practice in San Antonio in 1931, and served on the Board of Directors of the Texas College of Arts and Industries. In 1935, he was selected as an Associate Justice of the San Antonio Court of Civil Appeals, a post from which he resigned in 1937 to receive an appointment as the Chairman of the Texas Highway Commission. During Bobbitt's six-year term, the Texas Highway Department made great strides toward a goal of a connected system of paved roads in the state. In 1944, Bobbitt was a presidential elector, and, in 1958, was appointed to his last public service post, as a member of the Board of Regents of North Texas State College, his Alma Mater. 1974

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Landmark Inn State Historic Site — 11 mi
  A store and stage stop at the Medina River ford in Henri Castro's Alsatian town, with a mill race under the ground and rooms you can still rent for the night.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 24 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 24 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission Concepción — 24 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.

More markers nearby

• Judge Thomas L. Devine (1820-1890) — 6.3 mi
• First Baptist Church of Devine — 6.4 mi
• Spanish Exploration in Medina County — 7.3 mi
• City Hotel — 7.8 mi