ShareThisBy PERRY FLIPPIN
Scripps Howard News Service
Monday, May 14, 2007
San Angelo's mayor and City Council will salute an old soldier with a bad leg Tuesday for uncommon service to veterans, homeless women, abused girls, nursing home residents and anyone else who needs a free pair of comfortable house shoes.
Since 1993, Robert Stanley and his wife of 63 years, Lu Ella, have prepared and delivered more than 100,000 pairs of shoes -- strictly private charity -- to recipients from eastern New Mexico to the Piney Woods of Deep East Texas.
"We just can't believe it," said Lu Ella. "This is just something we've always done because..."
"We wanted to," said Robert, finishing her sentence. "It's just something we like to do."
On April 25, State Rep. Drew Darby, R-San Angelo, introduced the Stanleys to a standing ovation before the Texas House of Representatives in Austin.
"It's a great honor anytime you're in the Capitol of Texas and everybody on the floor and gallery is clapping and coming to shake your hand and saying, 'I appreciate what you've done for our country,' " said William Murray, commander of San Angelo's chapter of Disabled American Veterans.
Murray joined the Stanleys three years ago in the house shoe project and nominated Stanley for the state's Outstanding Disabled Veteran of the Year Award. Stanley, with Lu Ella, will receive the award June 22 at the state DAV convention in Austin. Each state winner qualifies for a shot at the national award.
The Stanleys and Murray spend four hours in the early mornings and fours hours late in the day sorting and pairing new house shoes manufactured by the R.G. Barry company in China.
Barry closed its San Angelo manufacturing plant more than three years ago and relocated first to Mexico, then to China. Stanley said Barry is sending many more rejects from China than from Mexico -- and Mexico's performance was bad. The merchandise shows no obvious defects and wearers have no complaints. Usually, they just need a match -- same size, color, design. The Stanleys patiently sort through box after box to find pairs for men, women and girls. Then they assemble the house shoes and deliver them to veteran's hospitals, nursing homes and other places that need them.
Stanley served in the Army in the Southwest Pacific, where he loaded 500-pound bombs in B-24s and B-25s.
One day, a GI accidentally dropped a bomb fuse that detonated on the tarmac. The explosion ripped a gash just above Stanley's left knee, leaving a seven-inch scar. A doctor diagnosed gangrene and prepared to amputate the leg, but a Mississippi nurse asked for a 24-hour delay while she treated the wound with penicillin.
It worked. Stanley was told he would never walk again without crutches or canes.
"I had trouble getting around for three or four years," he recalled, but the Waco Veterans Hospital furnished skilled medical care and rehabilitation.
After World War II, Stanley found work as a bootmaker for M.L. Leddy in San Angelo. Five years later, he opened his own boot shop which flourished until the oil boom faded. He sold his shop and went to work in the oil patch, still making boots in his time off.
(Contact Perry Flippin of the Standard Times in San Angelo, Texas, at www.texaswest.com.)
