Interview with Bill Robertson

Bill Robertson (born September 15, 1943), a lifelong resident of Mission and McAllen, provides a first-hand account of the pioneer era and mid-20th-century social fabric of Mission, Texas, with particular emphasis on the exclusive Shary Heights subdivision. Robertson traces his family’s arrival: his paternal grandfather entered the cotton business in Mission in 1908, while his maternal grandfather relocated from Vernon, Texas, to establish a citrus grove after purchasing land from developer John H. Shary. He vividly recalls the town’s earliest days, including cross-border bandit activity, homes lost to fire, and freezes, and the tight-knit circle of founding families (Shary, Conway, Bentsen, Buescher, Landry, Jeffries, Duncan, Armstrong, Walsh, Volz, Melch, and others) whose children and grandchildren he knew personally. The interview offers a detailed “mental map” of 1940s–1960s Shary Heights when it was still almost entirely brush and ebony thickets, with only a handful of homes along palm-lined cul-de-sacs and irrigation canals. Robertson recounts building hunting blinds on lots that later became neighbors’ yards, swimming in the Little Melch canal behind his house, and the arrival of the first additional residences (Armstrong, Zweifel, Campbell, Bentsen, etc.), and the dramatic transformation of the neighborhood from isolated citrus grove to upscale subdivision. Additional topics include downtown Mission’s commercial landscape (Shary Building, post office, banks, hardware and lumber yards, theaters), prominent local figures such as Judge Strickland and postmaster Flint Sorrell, the interconnected citrus and banking families, the impact of devastating freezes, and Robertson’s own experiences with polio as a child, big-game hunting worldwide, art collecting (Porfirio Salinas, Robert Wood, David Shepherd), and extensive travel, including 35 years of owning a second home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Throughout, Robertson expresses nostalgia for Mission’s conservative, close-knit past and appreciation for efforts to document its history.