This page is dedicated to the memory of Bobbe Duvall, who helped weave together chapters of the Chamblee/Chamlee story for descendents to treasure for generations to come.

I met Bobbe in the early 1990's on the internet. We were soon exchanging family history on the Chamblee family of early Bertie and Wake Counties, North Carolina. The records indicate that the Chamblees, like most families in 18th and 19th century America, moved extensively, migrating to more productive places when land for planting became scarce in their old neighborhood.

Freeman Chamblee, Bobbe's ggg-grandfather, was born March 21, 1810, probably in Wake County, NC. Court entries show that Freeman was able to obtain ample land holdings in Johnston County, NC. His father, Jarred Chamblee, and his grandfather, Robert Chamblee, had land on the Wake/Johnston County line area, with acreage on both sides. By 1853, a few of Freeman's children were in Itawamba County buying land.

"March 1, 1853, Itawamba Co MS--John and Hiram Chamblee [Freeman's brothers] bought adjoining parcels. John bought the property where my Chamblee family relatives live now. I think I told you that before. The land went outside the family, then back to John Rogers, whose daughter married my ggrandfather, Charles Perry. Anyway, interestingly, Hiram H. bought a 1/4 section on the same day, 14 June 1860. Freeman bought his for $3.00 from the estate of Joel B. Clifton, 3 1/2 sections, part adjoins John's land, yatta yatta. Guess where the cemetery ends up? On Freeman/Joel's land." --Bobbe making a connection

Photo, right: Bobbe labeled this photo of herself, "Trouble"

The migrating Freeman Chamblee, along with his family and some siblings, left for greener pastures and entrenched themselves in Mississippi life in and around Itawamba County. Bobbe Duvall, born five generations later, would spend countless hours retracing those migratory steps, endeavoring to uncover motivations behind all the choices and actions of her ancestors .

The central question, "Why did Freeman leave North Carolina," would never be answered in spite of Bobbe's continual pondering on the subject. The quest for more knowledge about her ancestors led Bobbe on a never-ending journey of both frustration and deep satisfaction as she uncovered facts, photos, documents, and more truth about those who had gone before. Her ancestral search was not a passing hobby or an interim distraction, but a heartfelt love and appreciation for the sacrifices of her own long lost and often-forgotten family that brought her endless joy.

When Bobbe and I linked on the internet, the novelty of the web and the thrill of fast-paced e-mail were still not well known to the world. Genealogy pages were rare and difficult to find. Bobbe learned that an organization called the USGenWeb Organization was looking for volunteers to design and host webpages for every county in the United States and every country in the world. The volunteering host would add facts and links to genealogy records to help neophyte internet genealogists. Volunteers were not required to live in the counties they would host, so Bobbe and I enlisted. Bobbe became the host of the ancestral land dear to her--Itawamba County, Mississippi. She spent countless hours in this endeavor.

Having an intuitive gift for understanding all things computer, it didn't take Bobbe long to discover and master the source code of webpages called "HTML" in spite of the lack of manuals available on the subject. She quickly designed and "put up" her Itawamba County page on the internet, and eventually volunteered to help the Northwest Georgia Historical and Genealogical Society with their website.

Photo at right: James Robert Chamblee (1854-1914) & Martha Ella Douglas (1860-1938), Bobbe's great great grandparents

Our relationship deepened as we shared personal stumbling blocks and hopes for the future as well as wider research and plans for the future of Chamblee research. As time progressed and family history on the internet matured, the Chamblee newsletter that had been launched earlier was replaced with a dedicated Chamblee/Chamlee website. With Anne Chamlee, Bobbe and I began to organize Chamblee/Chamlee information so that common cousins wouldn't have to reinvent the wheel and repeat unnecessary research.

Bobbe volunteered to be the first administrator of the Chamblee mailing list discussion group. I learned much from Bobbe during this time. She was patient with everyone on the list. She was not self-serving. She was helpful, and she was very bright. She seemed to know how to handle sticky situations and had a way of inserting important but non-intrusive boundaries around areas that needed them in a gentle way. I relied on her great humor, her never-ending quest to try harder, and her intuitive common sense of the world.

Being friends exclusively on the internet and phone is warming and intriguing. I learned that there was a certain rhythm to Bobbe's comings and goings, musings, spiritual thoughts, and ups and downs. I observed Bobbe's love for her brothers, Mike, Frank and Hobie and their families. Bobbe continually talked of family, the love she had for her parents and her life-long friends. She had great insight into people. Her self-knowledge was never about "Bobbe" but about being aware. Often she would cut short her telling me about the latest incident with "Well, I'll stop, I'm whining." Actually, I'm not sure Bobbe ever knew how to whine like the rest of us as she often compartmentalized the slightest disappointment as if she could do better--at least with me. She was one refreshing person.

Photo, left: John Hobart Duvall & Mary Lee Chamblee with Bobbe Jeanne and Glenn Michael Duvall. Bobbe loved this picture.

Bobbe's talent for self-awareness and keen observations of others endeared her to me. She didn't suffer fools gladly, but would make a two-word humorous comment if things were not right. She was definitive about what was right and wrong. I witnessed a humble but poignant struggle to positively hold to the rod on the narrow progressive road towards maturity, wisdom, and fulfillment. I loved her for that. Her mother's often repeated phrase, "Katy bar the door" became part of Bobbe's working vocabulary, then a fond memory when her mother passed away. She missed her mother a great deal. On August 6th, Bobbe wrote me, "Ben Stein just said Katy Bar the Door on Biography." She was enchanted and mystified someone besides her mother embraced that phrase.

Photo below: Bobbe had a special love for the Chamblee cemetery in Itawamba County, MS

Bobbe affectionately referred to her dad as, "the engineer." She often spoke of cherished times together. Her mother's bout with lung cancer [Mary Lee Chamblee: Sept 3, 1929 to Mar 3, 2000] and declining health required Bobbe to put her life on hold. She moved in with her mother and under great sacrifice and personal pressure chose to serve her mother in the kindest of ways. Even as late as this July, 2001, Bobbe was still asking herself if she had taken good enough care of her mother, had she done "the right things" or had she nurtured her well during her fatal illness. I was amazed she questioned her own heroic care because I had witnessed via phone and e-mail the tiredness, dedication and love in Bobbe's voice during that time. An appreciative mother, grandparents, and ancestors must have welcomed Bobbe back with loving, grateful arms. To think of it, now, finally, Bobbe could pose her one mystifying question directly to a genealogical primary source: "Freeman Chamblee, why did you move to Mississippi?!" --D'Ann Stoddard, fifth cousin, Sept 2001

Bobbe's lineage:
Robert Chamblee of Bertie and Wake Counties, NC
..Jarred Chamblee of Wake County, NC
...Freeman Chamblee of Wake County, NC and Itawamba County, MS
.....James Robert Chamblee, of Wake County, NC and Itawamba County, MS
.......Charles Perry Chamblee of Itawamba County, MS
.........Marshall Douglas Chamblee of Itawamba County, MS
...........Mary Lee Chamblee (Duvall) of Monroe County, MS and Rome, GA
.............Bobbe Jeanne Duvall born Abbeville, Vermillion Parr, LA, lived Calhoun, GA

A little note of typical humor and poignancy from Bobbe July 18, 2001....

"Have you seen this new dinosaur thing on Discovery? They are showing raptors with fur. Looks like they'd just say they are guessing. What's next, feathers? I guess we won't know until they have Jurassic Park for real.

"I'm missing Mom, having dreams. Grandma is in some of them. I want to go home. "

Our birth is but a sleep and a forgetting:
The soul that rises with us, our life's star,
Hath had elsewhere its setting,
And cometh from afar;
Not in entire forgetfulness,
And not in utter nakedness,
But trailing clouds of glory do we come
From God, who is our home
--William Wordsworth

Rome-News Tribune - 8/28/01

Ms. Bobbe Jeanne Duvall, age 50 of Calhoun, died Sunday Aug. 26, 2001 at Gordon Hospital following six months of illness.

Ms. Duvall was born on Sept. 23, 1950 in Abbeville, LA.; daughter of John Hobart Duvall and the late Mary Lee Chamblee Duvall. She lived in Rome, before moving to Calhoun where she was employed by ABF Freight Lines as a

Ms. Duvall is survived by her father, John Hobart Duvall of Cullman, Ala.; three brothers, Hobie Duvall of Atlanta, Frank Duvall of Charleston, S.C., and Mike Duvall of Douglasville; nieces and nephews, Shane, Derek, and Elizabeth Duvall, Adam and Ryan Duvall. Aunts, uncles and cousins also survive.

Memorial services for Ms. Bobbe Jeanne Duvall will be conducted Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. at the Bradley Anderson Memorial Chapel of Max Brannon & Sons Funeral Home.

Max Brannon & Sons Funeral Home of Calhoun is conducting the memorial services for Ms. Bobbe Jeanne Duvall of Calhoun.

(Memorial services were also held in Fulton, Itawamba County, Mississippi, September 1, 2001. Bobbe requested she be buried close to her mother who died March 3, 2000).

Bobbe Duvall surrounded by her brothers and mother.