He was sitting on the steps next to the Municipal Auditorium shortly after sunset waiting on a bus to Madison. As he spoke he told me he once had cancer in his arm. Part of his elbow was removed due to the cancer. He then took a smoke and looked into the distance as if he could see himself as a child. That is when his best memorable moment as a child unfolded, smoke after smoke.
“My best memory ever was when I was on TV, I was 8 and Nashville had the Popeye Club,” he said. I later learned the Popeye Club met in the old Paramount Theater. A man named Bob Luck played an organ in the theater and the organ raised from the ground to stage level. “I remember Bob Lobertini was called Captain Bob,” he said with a smile. Lobertini worked at WLAC – TV in Nashville at the time. He then stated, “Lobertini was the weather guy on the TV station.”
Channel 5 in Nashville first came on the air in 1954 as WLAC – TV. The station was owned by the Life and Casualty Insurance Company which is where the L&C tower is today in Nashville. In 1975 the television station was sold and it went on to become WTVF, News Channel 5.
“The richness of life lies in memories we have forgotten.”
-Cesare Pavese
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