Robertson

Carpenter Peter Robertson and his wife Molly moved to Norcross around 1880, and by the early 1900s three generations of the Robertson family lived near the intersection of Britt and Bostic Streets, including son Barrington King Robertson and his wife Amanda Wall Robertson, and their eight children. Several of those children moved to other locations, but daughter Maybelle and sons Willie and Frank spent their lives in Norcross. 

The town baseball field was across the street from their home at that time (on land currently used as Lillian Webb Park) and both boys played the sport in their youth. 

Frank Robertson came to the attention of a larger audience through his participation in a charity event in Atlanta in the fall of 1914. The popular Harry Welchonce, the captain of the Atlanta Crackers minor league baseball team at that time, had run into health problems, and Atlanta baseball fans organized several events to help raise money to pay for his medical treatments; one of those was a baseball game between two teams of local players, staged in Piedmont Park on Saturday September 19 of that year, where Frank Robertson, 21 at the time, was the starting pitcher for one of the teams, the Larruppers. Joe Dunn of the Crackers as the catcher on his team, and was so impressed by the young pitcher that Frank joined the Crackers.

Frank Robertson’s baseball career was cut short by international events – he served in the Army in France during World War I. After he returned he married local girl Floy Twitty, the town telephone operator, but did not resume his baseball pursuits due to health issues. Over his years in Norcross he served on the City Council of Norcross and as mayor, was head of the area Selective Service board in Norcross during World War II, and operated a retail store.

Frank and Floy Robertson celebrated the arrival of twin girls, Jean and Joan, after a few years of marriage, and built a home on Britt Street, near Frank’s mother’s house, around 1930. In those days there was a garden and pasture in the back of the house, and Jean remembers fondly playing in a small stream in the back yard.

Tragedy struck the family on May 13, 1949. Both girls were attending college in Milledgeville, and were part of a singing group from the college that was traveling to Atlanta to perform that evening. Their van had a crash following a tire blow-out and Joan Robertson died from her injuries.