+17 i.
Bobby Gene ROACH.
+18 ii.
Elwin Roy ROACH.
+19 iii.
Sandra Faye SHEARIN (ROACH).
20 iv.
Belinda Gayle ROACH was born on 26 May 1953 in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
+21 v.
Timothy Valon ROACH.15. Valon Willis ROACH was
born on 25 Dec 1915 in Hollister, Oklahoma. 1) Identical twin to Vaughn Theodore
ROACH who was the first born.
2) Mother had always worn perfume and cologne for Dad; but since he never commented
on it one way or the other, she quit wearing any at all. One day while driving
into town, Dad said, "That is a real nice perfume you're wearing today,
Lola, What is it?" Between chews of her bubble gum she said, "It is
strawberry flavored bubble gum! I'm not wearing any perfume!" He died
on 24 Dec 2005 in Alamogordo, New Mexico. Valon Roach, local artist in oils
of scenic pictures, will be the December guest artist at the Flickenger Center
For Performing Arts.
Roach, was born fifteen minutes after his identical twin, Vaughn, December, 25
1915 in a one room dugout near Hollister Oklahoma where he lived with his parents,
Roy and Dora Roach, and another brother, Vance, until 1922 when the family moved
by train to Las Cruces where they rented a cotton farm.
His father bought a farm for $2000 in the upper Rio Peñasco Canyon, and
the family moved there in 1924. When they built onto the one room shack, his
father put in twelve foot ceilings, saying that he was tired of bumping his head.
Memories of dugouts do not easily die.
The move from Las Cruces to Alamogordo was made in a covered wagon, which took
three days. To keep the load light, he and his two brothers walked most of the
way leading their milk cow. After arriving in Alamogordo, the family bought
their first Model-T Ford truck. Even with such an "advancement" in
travel, it took two more days to make the long "35 mile" journey to
their farm. He said, "After a few more days of settling in, Dad and I walked
back to Alamogordo to get our horse and farm-mule we had left behind. That
trip took the better part of a day, and would have taken longer; but we got a
ride into town just below High Rolls."
The one farm eventually grew into 4 farms, plus a farm in Deming. In 1956, Roach
and his brothers sold the mountain farms and put in a cotton farm west of Tularosa.
He moved there with his wife, Lola and family (Bobby, Elwin, Sandy, Belinda,
and Tim). He and his brother, Vance, along with Bobby, farmed that land for
20 years. His retirement took him to his twin brother's farm in Deming until
3 years ago, when he returned and is now living in the Alamogordo area.
Roach's first painting was when he was twenty-one years old (a mountain scene
from his bedroom window on the upper Peñasco.) This was while waiting
for the long winter to pass.
"I worked hard, and for many days, on that painting," Roach said.
"Finally, the picture began to look like the mountain. That's the way all
my paintings have been; namely, hard work, trial and error. If it don't look
right, I keep painting until it takes shape, or until I give out – whichever
comes first. To my regret, I've never seemed to find time to take any lessons."
He said his second attempt at painting was another scenic view: "It took
all most a year to finish, painting off and on as I had time. I believe it was
my best work ever, and my friends and family have often said the same. However,
the professionals didn't share the same opinion." He had entered the picture
in the State Fair and was told by an art critic (one of judges) that his painting
wasn't "modern" enough, and he also said that it looked too real, too
much like a photograph, and too much like the pictures that had been painted
50 years ago. Roach decided to just quit and stick to farming, that which he
knew how to do, as he reflected. It wasn't until 15 years later that he made
the decision to pursue again his love of painting.
Tularosa Basin's art critics must have viewed his work with more appreciation
than the State Fair professionals; for in 1971 he was named the guest artist
of the year in the 13th annual Tularosa Rose Festival.
With a distant look of another time upon his furrowed face, as if briefly reviewing
all his former days, and in his soft-spoken voice, he said, "I will be
87 years old Christmas Day. My eye is not as sharp as it once was, nor is my
hand as steady; but I still paint, spending most of my time these days doing
scenic pictures in my small studio -- which, for some reason, seems to generate
more traffic than any other room of the house, and I am pretty sure it's not
because of my art work. I don't mind the traffic though. I just keep on painting."
(His studio is the bathroom, and he pays no mind to anyone who is desperate enough
to us it while he is at work.)
-----------
Model-T Fords had to be 'hand-cranked' to get them started, and with only two
gears (one with the foot pedal in and the other with it out) and no clutch, you
had to be careful and not let the truck run over you once it started. Dad said
that on a cold morning, it worked better if they would jack one of the back wheels
up to start it. After it warmed up, they would push it off the jack to get it
going, then run around and jump in before it got away with you.
When Grandpa got his first Model-B Ford truck, he had a hard time with it, since
he was not used to gears and a cluthch. When hauling a load up a hill, someone
would have to put a block behind a wheel while he revved the engine to get it
going. On one occasion while hauling a 4,000 lb. load of cabbage up a steep hill,
Grandpa kept jumping the front wheels about 4 feet into the air. By the time
he got to the top of the hill, he was a nervous wreck. It was generally Grandma's
job to block the truck on just about every steep hill they came to, whether they
had a load or not.
------
After Valon & Lola were married and living in the chicken coup on Vaughn
& Margaret's place in the upper Penasco Canyon, they heard and saw what they
thought was a pack-rat in the wood box. He stomped it to death before he realized
it was not pack rat but a civit
cat, a cousin to the skunk. Nice....
-----
When Dad was eight or ten years old, Grandpa took him along to help find the
horses. They crossed over a couple of ridges and canyons with Dad being barefooted.
The horses weren't found; but he said that when they finally got back over to
the road leading to their house that after all day walking on sharp sticks and
other forest debris, the graveled road really felt good on his feet.
He was
married to Lola Mae EVANS (daughter of Eugene EVANS and
Bertha WILLIFORD) on 26 Feb 1937 in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
Lola Mae EVANS was born on 24 May 1922 in Willow City, Texas. Valon
Willis ROACH and Lola Mae EVANS had the following children:
+17 i.
Bobby Gene ROACH.
+18 ii.
Elwin Roy ROACH.
+19 iii.
Sandra Faye SHEARIN (ROACH).
20 iv.
Belinda Gayle ROACH was born on 26 May 1953 in Alamogordo, New Mexico.
+21 v.
Timothy Valon ROACH.
Return to Table of Contents