Parker Live News from the Parker Strip since 2009.
I’ve known Bob Talley since my first visit to the United States when I was 20 years old. My new girlfriend Melissa (who I’d met only several weeks before, in Ireland) was a family friend of the Talleys and introduced me to the man, who I thought at the time – and still think today – was one of the nicest people I’d ever met.
A decade later I was interviewing Mr. Talley for our 42-minute documentary about modern folklore called Goatman: Search for the Legend (2010). He was a great storyteller and talked about the antics of his son, our friend Paul, scaring his sister out in the fields at night while baling hay.
Melissa and I are still good friends with Paul and John Talley, who were here in Parker a couple of weeks ago while preparing for their dad’s memorial service. (It was a strange twist of circumstance that Melissa was in Germany on a five-week Rotary trip not far from where Paul lives now, and Paul was spending the night at our house in Arizona!)
I promised them I would find the interview we did with Bob and post it, raw and uncut, as a tribute to him. So here it is. This is the full interview with Bob Talley about the Goatman, the crazy subject he agreed to help us out by talking about on camera. The DVD version of the documentary came with a couple of extra features, one of which was the story about Paul, as told by Bob in this clip.
I hope it allows you to see why he’ll be missed by so many.
Bob Talley was one of a kind and definitely positively impacted those who knew him.
Mr. Bob Talley was one of the finest individuals I have ever met. I worked for Talley Farms in the late 60’s. We were building the berm around Quail Mesa Ranch at the time. I was operating heavy equipment for them. Little did I know that, that association would be a friendship that lasted all these years.
Bob set an example for all to follow, his Faith in the Lord was his guideline of how to treat his fellow man, his manhood led his family to be a great example in the community.
There was never, and I mean never a time that Bob when he saw me didn’t come up to me and extend his hand to shake it and say hi to me.
He was a true friend to all, and he will be sorely missed in our community!
Frank Savino