Bob Jeffers

Bob Jeffers, faithful husband, father of five, grandfather, great grandfather, naval aviator, airline pilot, fisherman and golfer, died on January 21st in San Marcos, Texas. He was 89.

Robert Brooken Jeffers was born on Nov. 24, 1931 in Wichita, Kansas, the first of three children to Robert Brooken and Mabel Manson Jeffers. He grew up in a modest home, sharing a room with his two younger brothers. As an early teenager he worked various manual labor jobs and grew into helping his father who drove a petroleum truck. This instilled the grit that and work ethic that lasted throughout his life.

After attending some college, he joined the Navy and later the Navy Reserves. Bob served in the Korean and Vietnam Wars. His job in the aircraft control tower sparked his interest in flying. He was able to impress enough officers to gain recommendation to the Navy’s Officer Candidate School and flight training program in Pensacola, Florida. Before starting flight training, he returned to Wichita in 1955 to marry Martha (Marty) McAllister, the woman he would spend the rest of his life with. The young couple quickly started a family, having their first four children while Bob’s career took them to Annapolis, Maryland; Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas, Texas; Corpus Christi, Texas and back to Dallas to pursue his career as a commercial pilot with Braniff International.

Eventually they moved to Hunt, Texas, where they were blessed to live in a beautiful home on top of a hill. They fell in love with landscape, lived near dear friends and had their youngest son before work eventually took them back to the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Bob loved to fly. He talked about his adventures from learning how to land on the pitching deck of an aircraft carrier, to long hours flying reconnaissance missions over the North Atlantic during the Cold War, to airlifting Navy SEALs out of Vietnam. Between the Navy and Braniff, he felt very fortunate to be able to travel all over the world.

He also enjoyed golfing, fishing, hunting, late night poker games and the camaraderie that went with those things. Bob and Marty spent their retirement years in Wimberley, Texas, to be close to family in their beloved Texas Hill Country.

He loved Marty until she died in 2017, sitting daily at her bedside for years. He is survived by his three daughters, Cindy (Andy) Zwiacher, Sandra (Kevin) Green, and Teresa (David) Junkin; son, Michael (Monica) Jeffers; thirteen grandchildren and eleven great-grandchildren. Another son, Richard Jeffers, died in 2013.

His family will deeply miss his dry sense of humor, stories about his flying days, and the example he set as an honest and faithful man that lived his life with integrity.