The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1919-10-10
ONCE THE TOWNS BAD BOY
NOW SHOUTING. FOR JESUS
The Return of Bob Askew To Elizabeth City After
:. Absence of Is Years Also Discloses an
Interesting Romance \

Elizabeth City has to- have
'onnething out of. the, ordinary on
he boards=every seven days and
his week it is Bob, AsIew. Fwen-
~ five years ago there lived in
his town hard-drinEirng, hard
swearing, hard-hittirrg, free low
<ng, gambling, boisterous, mis-
chievous, daredevil, happy-go-
lucky fellow by the name of Bob
Askew..
After an absence Of quarter
of a centnsy this boy whose es-
are we'll remembered by
all the older heads comes back to
his home town as the Rev. Bobt.
H. Askew and starts a, religious
revival in the very Court House.
And the Rev. Robt. Askew brings
back with him to Elizabeth CITY
one of the most talented and
charming women to have visited
Elizabeth City in many a day.
The woman is his wife, She was
the daughter of we'll known
New York physician a grand
neice of President Hays and was
an operate prima donna before,
her marriage to Bob Askew in
November 1918.
How Bob Askew got religion and got
Mrs Askew is a long story full of all
sorts of romance. And so Elizabeth City
is turning out to hear Bob Askew preach
and to hear Mrs. Askew sing. And there
are no dissapointments. They are, both,
delivering the goods. ~
For many years after leaving Eliz
abeth City Bob Askew wandered all over
the globe He has travelled all over the
United States and Canada. He says he
NAV not have gathered any moss at this
rolling stone business, but he[ did ac,
auire some polish He worked first at
[<Le thing and then at another; always.
bettering his lot and becoming more
substantial citizen as he went along.
In 1912 he was working for big con-
tracing firm in New York City and his
employer gave a dinner to a party OF
seventeen of his most favored employees.
1The party was at palatial home On
Fifth Avenue. Bob was in the party.
Now Fifth avenue dinner parties always
. call for high class entertainment ana
! the entertainer of that particular party
was Miss, Lenora e. Wyatt, operatic
| prima donna, whose stage name was
Baby Lenora. Bob was charmed by
Baby Lenora and her songs.
The next day his boss asked him what
| he thought of the little prima donna. II
think she's out of sight! declared Bob
"Wen, she ought to be-" said the rich
man; ''I paid her $3.50 for the twenty
| minutes she gave us last night.
| edo YOU mean to say she gets SzoO
| for singing 20 minutes as she did last
night?"
That's what she gets"
i "You'ye said enough" declared Bob
i Askew: ssThat's my woman; I'm going
| to marry her or bust
| Rob told the story here in the shop
of THE INDEPENDENT the other
morning. He said it took him seven
I wears to make good his boast and his
ambition. He says he wrote the BAD!
I Lenora seventeen notes before ne got al
answer to one; and that answer was no'
at all satisfactory. Bob says he follow
cd her all over the United States. Ii
meantime Bob was getting religion. he
igion is closely related to or ntert"1n
ed with sexual emotions.
About two years after his first meet
;np with Baby Lenora Bob was preach
ing They put him in a country churcf
ar Dillsboro. up in the hills of western
North Carolina. He was too blg 1ol
' the church and they made him an evan
oa1;st for that mountain field. 1t wasn'
long before Bob cut loose from his linn
;ted charge and became an evangelist a
, large. going after lost souls wherever
!, the harvest seemed to be ripe In mean
: time he continued to pursue the cnarm
ing woman of his dreams.
It's a long. long story and the upsho
of il was that Baby Lenora also go
| religion and Cnen Dou Cdhio i'o "
own. They were married at Hot Springs
Ark last November. Miss Wyatt CAV
up her promising operate career an,
2 ioined hands with the persistent Dol
< in spreading the gospel to which eae'
t had become attached.
= OF course. during all these strenuou
e years, Bob has been thinking about nj
old home. When fellow begins to ge
, along in the world his thoughts Away
+ go back to the land of his nativity. ID
can't keep away from it. He is draw
: by an irresistible impulse, as a murdere
+ is drawn to the scene of his crime,
as a fish to its spawning grounds. AN
so.>unheralded save by few announce
ments Bob Askew is back in his oi
: home town preaching the gospel OF Je
h sus Christ as he has found it and try
h ing to convince the fellows that it pay
vi to get good. It has in BOb's case.
a Besides Mrs. Askew who SO ably al
.rt s;efs him with her solo work. Rev. nj