WHT Memorials

My deepest sympathies to the Groover family and their extended family - all their walking horse friends.

So sad....another icon from our industry gone. My thoughts and prayers are with the Groovers.

My condolences to the Groover family. Wink was certainly, one of a kind...and will be missed.

Wink Groover
September 27, 1935 - April 11, 2010




Wink Groover of Longview, Texas, passed away Sunday, April 11, 2010. Graveside services will be at 11:00 a.m., Wednesday, April 14, at Oakwood Cemetery with the Rev. Frank Mangum officiating.

Wink was born September 27, 1935, in Miami, Florida. His passion was Tennessee Walking Horses. For the past 56 years he was involved in all aspects of that breed of horses, including raising, training, judging and showing. He was National Walking Horse Trainer of the Year in 1970 and 1992. He also served as president of the W.H.T.A. in 1970 and 2007.

He and his wife, Nancy, were married for 25 years. As best friends, their lives were centered around the horses and each other.

He is survived by his wife, Nancy McNamara Groover; son, Winky Groover of Shelbyville, TN; daughter, Cindy Walker or Chattanooga, TN; step-son, John Carter Hicks of Waco; and two grandsons, Dan Groover and Michael Walker.

Memorials may be made to Beacon Hospice at Margaret's House, 5016 Gilmer Rd., Longview, TX 75608.

The family invites you to leave a message or memory in our "Memorial Guestbook" at www.wilkirsonhatchbailey.com.

I just read on FB where Connie Bobo fell the other night and hurt her bad knees again.looks like Surgery may be just around the corner for her.Please let's keep her in our thoughts and prayers.

So sorry to hear that. She's had a terrible time with her knees. Connie's been a friend to us all here on the trivia site for quite a while now. Here's wishing her a speedy recovery.

She needs to get her some of those bionic knees! Seriously, Connie I hope you mend quickly. We'll keep you in our thoughts and prayers.

Connie, here's hoping you are better REAL soon.

Tommy Williams just posted on FB that Dr Bob Womack has passed away. He will certainly be missed by the Walking Horse world. My thoughts are with his family.

I'm shocked and saddened to hear one of the TRULY GREAT men we have known in the walking horse world is with us no longer. He has contributed SO much to the legacy of the breed and in so many other ways.

Very sorry to hear about Dr. Bob.

I am shocked to hear this very sad news since Lynn was at the show last night.He was a very dear friend.I always stopped over to see him when I am in Tn.I loved to sit and talk about the history of our Breed with him.My thoughts and prayers are with his family at this very sad time.

I am so sorry to hear this. Dr. Womack was one of my favorite people in the whole world. Fortunately for me, our paths crossed many times. I even ran into him one time at Holyrood Castle in Edinburgh, Scotland. Now that was a surprise!

Our condolences to Lynn, Ricky, Andy, & the whole wonderful Womack family. You are in our thoughts & prayers.

Dr. Bob Womack



"Beloved author, professor and TWH historian, Dr. Bob Womack passed away on April 17, 2010 at Middle Tennessee Medical Center. He was a native of Bedford County and had lived in Rutherford County for the past 53 years. He served in the U.S. Navy during WW II. Throughout his life he was a noted leader in the Tennessee Walking Horse industry, serving on the Tennessee Walking Horse Breeders and Exhibitors Board of Directors, instrumental in the development of the Walking Horse Owners Association, and one of the original investors in the Walking Horse Report. He authored many works, but his The Echo of Hoofbeats is noted to be the authority on the history of the Tennessee Walking Horse and it was reissued through three editions.

To know Dr. Womack was to love him. He was forthright, honest to a fault, and clear on his own opinions regardless of popular thought. His hundreds of students loved him for challenging them to think, to really think about topics rather than to accept conventional thinking. His gift was certainly to educate, formally and informally, all those who knew him, most especially outside his classroom. He always challenged everyone to be the best person they could be.

Dr. Womack was preceded in death by his parents, David Andrew Womack and Georgia Price Womack, his wife, Elizabeth Clements Womack, brothers, Price, Paul and Ben Womack, and sisters Helen Womack and Sara Womack. He is survived by his sons, Andy (Cherry) Womack and Ricky Womack, daughters Lara (Steve) Daniel and Lynn Womack, grandsons David (Cheryl) Womack, Jackson Short and Samuel Short, granddaughters Dana Womack, Marguerite (Rob) Sims, Sara Womack and Meaghan Daniel, and great-grandchildren Molly Womack, Mason Womack, Riley Sims and Emery Sims.

Dr. Womack accumulated many accomplishments, honors and awards, and titles throughout his life. He considered his greatest accomplishment to be the family that he and Elizabeth built. He took great pride in their accomplishments and in their diversity, and he loved them fiercely.

Dr. Womack was a Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Middle Tennessee State University, recently renamed the Womack Family Department of Educational Leadership. He had been inducted into both the Tennessee Teachers’ Hall of Fame and the Tennessee Walking Horse National Celebration Hall of Fame. Besides the Echo of Hoofbeats, he was the author of Call Forth the Mighty Men, A History of Tennessee and many other books.

Visitation with the family will be Monday, April 19, 2010 from 4:00 p.m. until 8:00 p.m. at Jennings & Ayers Funeral Home. A graveside service will be held at 11:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 20, 2010 at Rosebank Cemetery in Flat Creek, Tennessee. A procession to the cemetery will leave at 10:30 a.m. from Jennings and Ayers. Pallbearers will be Dwight Bullard, Joe Sawyer, Bob Bullen, Marty McCullough, Jimmy Allen, John Stanford, Ross Spielman and Aubrey Mosely.

In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to the MTSU Foundation for the Womack Family Endowment."

The TWH industry has lost one of our finest. Dr. Bob, will be greatly missed. My condolences to his lovely family.

More From Dr. Bob

In this article an accompanying video, Dr. Bob Womack tells MTSU’s story from his days as a student and how he became MTSU’s most senior professor. Click Here:


http://www.mtsusidelines.com/features/oldest-professor-recounts-mtsu-history-1.936644

I am so sorry to hear of Dr, Womack's passing. He did an interview with my dad at MTSU about a year before my dad passed away. That tape is priceless to me. Dr. Womack was very well respected by his students at MTSU as well as his horse friends. We have lost another icon.

Last night at the show in White Pine Cindy Hughes of Knowville, Had a heart attack and I am sad to hear that she passed away this morning.

Thoughts and prayers for the families of all these wonderful people. I was one of Dr. Bob's students and, much to my surprise, he remembered me many years later. It was always interesting to talk with him. He was a good man and will be missed by many.

About Dr. Bob,
He told me 2 things that I will relay,
He said that my mother inlaw was the only person at MTSU, that had the guts to tell him to get that stinking cigar out of Her office & He respected Her for doing it.
He told this on His MD sister Sarah that practiced at Shelbyville. She started having heart problems & He took her to see a specialist for the first time in Nashville. The Spec. asked Sarah if she smoked & she said no. Have you ever? Yes. You don't smoke now. No. When did you quit? On the way up here!

I'm so sorry to hear about Dr. Bob. I only know him through his book "The Echo of Hoofbeats" and what I've read on the various WH sites.

That said, I'm working up a post for my Horsey Set Net blog about Dr. Bob. Although my blog isn't dedicated to walking horses, I include them in there just like any other equestrian sport.

So, if y'all wouldn't mind sharing some stories about him for my blog, please feel free to post them here (cuz I don't want to take steam from our WHT site) but, if you don't mind me using them on my blog, please add the the words "Rambler, you can use this" in it.

So sorry to hear about Dr. Bob...a great historian gone from our industry.

Rambler,

I don't have any stories to share, but I have met Dr. Bob and been around him on several occasions in a social setting. I think that most would say he was a very genuine and endearing person. Highly intelligent, yet down-to-earth. Friendly, funny, interesting and although I was young when I met him, I was surprised and delighted by his interest in getting to know ME. Although he was successful in many areas, the thing he was most proud of was the family he and his wife raised, and the Womacks are a fine family.............the kind of people you WISH you were related to. As I said before, his contributions to the walking horse world go FAR beyond his historical knowledge and he contributed on so many levels and in so many ways. His passing leaves a great void in the university, the community and the horse industry.

Maybe some of the others can add more than I.

I forgot to mention that Dr. Bob was an inspiration and touched many people's lives.

http://hosting-tributes-24302.tributes.com/condolences/view_memories/88307959