Congressman Robert Lee Fulton “Bob” Sikes, 1906 –1994:

                                                             Robert Lee Fulton Sikes was born June 3, 1906 in Isabella, Worth County, GA. Of his name Sikes says that  his folks – believing he would be the last child they would ever have – named him after all the people in the family that hadn’t had a child named after them.  That’s how he ended up with four names.  He graduated from the University of Georgia and received his Masters degree from the University of Florida.  He moved to Valparaiso, FL. in early 1933 and, within a few months, was the owner and publisher of the Valparaiso Star weekly newspaper. Soon he was the owner of a second weekly paper, The Okaloosa News Journal in Crestview.
     By 1935 he had built a house and established Crestview as his home. This was his principal residence until his death.
     By 1936, Sikes was serving in the Florida Legislature where he served two terms.  In 1940, he was elected to the first of nineteen consecutive terms in the U.S. House of Representatives.  He became the third ranking member of the powerful Appropriations Committee and Chairman of the Military Construction Subcommittee. Before retiring from the U.S. Army Reserve, he reached the rank of Major General.
     Bob Sikes served as Congressman for Northwest Florida from 1940 to 1978.  During his 38 year career, Sikes turned the Florida Panhandle into a military stronghold and helped to preserve its beaches for future generations.
     Of his abilities to represent our area, Representative Sam Gibbons, Democrat, from Tampa, had this to say, Sikes looked after his district first, second, and third, and after than the rest of us got whatever crumbs were left. At one of Sikes’ early rallies the Congressman was vehemently standing up for his territory and fighting for the rights of his people. Sikes says that “ Someone in the crowd said, ‘Well, he acts just like an old He-Coon. I thought about it, decided not to say anything about it and, well, it just stuck.” Sikes recalled that – in the early days - folks commonly believed that anytime you saw five or six raccoons together in a pack, one of them must be the one to look for water, find the food, stake out the territory and protect all the others. They called him the He-Coon.
     Sikes is credited for establishing the climatic lab, guided missile testing facilities and the federal prison at Eglin AFB.  In addition to Eglin, he helped develop Tyndall AFB, Whiting Field and Pensacola Naval Air Station, the Jim Woodruff Dam and the Gulf Islands National Seashore. This area includes thirty miles of beaches in Florida and Mississippi, covering some 139,000 acres. Sikes was also instrumental in the development of the Naval Aviation Museum in Pensacola and the U.S. Air Force Armament Museum at Eglin.
     Sikes career came to an end in the late 1970s after he was accused of using his powerful his powerful post for personal
  profit.  The First District voters loved him.  Throughout his four decades he was, without question, their man.  Even after he
  was reprimanded by the House Ethics Committee in 1976 for conflict of interest violations he was re-elected to his 19th term
  with 75 percent of the vote!
     He was the first member of Congress to be investigated by the new ethics committee (Committee on Standards and 
Official Conduct) which was created  following the Watergate scandal.
     Sikes first married Emma Keyes (1929). He next married Inez Tyner (1949) and he married his third wife, Joan Thomas in 1983.  Raised by his widowed mother, his adult half-sister and two nieces who were actually older than he was.  He was the pampered boy in a household of women.  “I think he grew up believing he was the center of his particular universe,” his daughter Bobbye Sikes Wicke said
  with a laugh.   “And, of course, he really was.”   He was an avid sportsman whose home was filled with hunting trophies.  After retiring  for good in 1978, he remained active in the community.  In  his later years Sikes’ health began to fail and he suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.  In 1994 he died at the age of 88.
                               Namesakes:   #Bob Sikes Bridge, Escambia County
                               #Bob Sikes Elementary School Crestview.
                               #Bob Sikes Airport, Crestview 
                               #Bob Sikes Hwy (SR 85) FT Walton Bch to Alabama State line.
                                #Bob Sikes Channel  (Franklin Co. east of Panama City, FL).




       
                                                                                                       Baker Block Museum Educational Services. Baker, FL. (850) 537-5714