When Glen Hobbs began researching family members for the first Hobbs Family Reunion, a reunion that connected all of his father’s brothers and sisters, he found something interesting. He found out he was related to a Tuskegee Airman that grew up right here in Winona and Hobbs had no idea.
Hobbs said there have been small reunions where family members will get together and cook-out, but this was the first one where all of the families have come together.
“We’ve never had one of those,” he said.
He said he used several methods of contacting relatives and in finding them, he learned he was related to many people he had no clue they were even related. “I used Facebook, People Find, e-mail, phone calls,” he said. “When I began to find people, they began finding me.”
That’s how he found out he was related to a Tuskegee Airman.
He said he found Chief Master Sergeant Calvin “Cal” Hobbs by first finding his son David. “I clicked on his name and I began scrolling. I saw that his grandfather’s name is Woodley and I said, ‘That’s my dad’s brother.’” After digging further, he found that David’s dad Cal was from Winona.
This was news to Hobbs.
“I had no idea. My dad never talked about it,” he said.
Hobbs said as he began to investigate further, he found there were some in the community who remembered Cal. “He had his own airplane. He used to take people around in it,” he said. Hobbs said Cal used to land at Wright’s Field when he came home.
The unique part of it, there weren’t many blacks with their own plane during that time. But, Cal owned one.
“He also used to come to Winona during the summer, but I was never here. I spent summers working in Gary, Ind. Because we have relatives there, too. I did that all through high school and college.”
Cal Hobbs served in the military for 20 years, retiring in 1964. He first enlisted in 1944 in Omaha, NE. He worked his way up in a short period of time from aviation cadet to sergeant in 22 months. Cal was a member of the first African-American Aviation Mechanics Class at Amarillo Army Air Base.
He was line chief for the 99 and 332nd famous Tuskegee Airman. He completed aeriel gunnery school, was a crew chief of the first KC-135 refueling aircraft at Mather Air Force Base, working his way to Chief Master Sergeant.
After he retired, Cal became one of the founding members of the Tuskegee Airman, Spanky Roberts Chapter going from place to place telling generations under him about his work and what the Tuskegee Airman did.
Hobbs lived in Southern California, the same time Cal lived in California. “There were seven families around me, all of us were related and I had no idea,” he said. He said one of his cousins was a principal miles from the school where he worked.
“She’s from Greenwood and was right up the road,” he said. “I had no idea.” Hobbs said he learned the family has someone in just about every field.
“We can open up our own university,” he said.
Cal died in 2011 when he was 87. Hobbs said he began telling Karl Oliver (R)- Winona about Hobbs and Oliver wanted to do something to honor him. Along with Rep. Willie J. Perkins (D)- Greenwood, the two authored a resolution honoring Cal.
Saturday, during the Hobbs Family Reunion, there will be a ceremony honoring Cal where the resolution will be held. However, it’s only for the family right now. The ceremony will take place at the J.J. Knox Campus.
“We just don’t have the room for everyone,” he said. He said the family had to turn people away because people began reaching out to them and they didn’t have room to hold everyone.
Hobbs said there is another ceremony in the works to honor Cal again that will be open to the public.
