Obituary of Robert M. Breland, 1889-1959
This photo was taken in 1936, when Robert M. Breland was 47 years old.
This obituary for my maternal grandfather was published in The Commercial Appeal in Memphis, Tennessee, on Thursday, November 26, 1959. It contains two factual errors: Robert M. Breland was born in Washington Parish, not Tangipahoa Parish, and he did not move to Mobile until after 1931. In 1930 he lived in New Orleans. By 1940, he had moved from Mobile to Northport, Alabama. By 1950 he lived in Hawai’i. He moved from Hawai’i to Mobile, where several of his children lived, in 1958 or 1959, not long before he died.
ROBERT M. BRELAND
Rites Sunday for Former Memphian, 70
Services for Robert Milton Breland, former Memphian who died yesterday in Mobile, will be at 1 p.m. Sunday at National Funeral Home. Burial will be in Memorial Park.
Mr. Breland, who was 70, was born in Tangipahoa Parish, La., and moved to Memphis in 1918. He moved to Mobile in 1930. He was a bookkeeper.
He leaves six sons, Dr. Kenneth Breland of Boise, Idaho, Hunter Breland of Fort Worth, Texas, Robert Breland, Charles G. Breland, Douglas P. Breland and Leigh Breland, all of Mobile; three daughters, Mrs. Beryl B. Young of Corpus Christi, Texas, Mrs. Brooken Campbell of Ohio, and Mrs. Arley Hughes of Mobile, and 18 grandchildren.
He was the brother-in-law of Mrs. L.O. Peck of 2116 Linden, Mrs. Elbert E. Holley of 487 Josephine and Carl E. Pierce of 1879 Young.
88 years old, 66 years married
This story about my about my Hughes great-grandparents was published in The Tuscaloosa News in January 1956 — I’m not sure which day.
Pickens Natives, Wed 66 Years, Still Hearty And Independent
By BOB KYLE
News Staff Writer
When Mr. and Mrs. Jim Hughes both turned 88 and close partners for 66 short years, shake hands with St. Peter in another world they won’t have far to go. It’ll be like visiting kinfolks in an adjoining forty.
A Pickens County family most of their lives, Mr. and Mrs. Hughes moved on a better farm near Columbus, Miss., right after World War I.
Last Tuesday, Mrs. Hughes celebrated her 88th birthday. Mr. Jim turned 88 last summer.
It was during the early winter that Mr. and Mrs. Hughes called in their kinfolks to celebrate the 66th anniversary of their wedding.
They have eleven children living. There are 25 surviving grandchildren and 26 surviving great-grandchildren.
A son, Arlie E. Hughes, Tuscaloosa, just recently retired at 65 from employment at Alabama Power Company here. He had worked for the company 16 years.
Another son, E. T. Hughes, is employed by Allen and Jemison Co., in Tuscaloosa. A daughter, Mrs. Ingram Ashcraft, is a nurse’s aid at Druid City Hospital.
The elderly couple has lived through periods of prosperity and the other, were past grownup in the days of Roosevelt’s WPA, but didn’t take any money for plowing under every third heifer or for not planting cotton.
To this day, Mr. and Mrs. Hughes have been self reliant, self-supporting and never the object of any charity from the government, any individual, not even the kinfolks.
Both are still in apparent good health.
Who wears the britches in the family?
“Ours is not an absolute petticoat government,” chuckled the husband, Jim, “but it’s under pretty good control.”
What did his missus think along those lines?
Like most womenfolks, she was smart enough not to say.
Hughes' Views & News 
leave a comment