Robert A. Overstreet, age 83 of Marshall, died on Thursday, September 7, 2023, at the White River Medical Center, with family by his side. Robert was born in Marshall on April 7, 1940, the son of Robert and Velma Overstreet. He grew up on the family farm on Nubbin Hill with five brothers and one sister. He often talked about the good old days, hitching up mule-powered mowing machines, using oil lamps for light, and milking cows.

He went on several adventures after graduating from Leslie High school in’59, from working at a relative’s sawmill in the mountains of New Mexico, to working on an apple orchard in Washington State.

In 1962, he decided to enlist in the Navy, and spent the next three years in the Navy Mobile Construction Battalion. He transferred from his original base in Fallon, Nevada to the Asia Pacific in 1963, where the battalion constructed aircraft runways for the LORAN navigation system on isolated Pacific atolls.

After leaving the Navy in 1965, Robert came back to Arkansas, and in Marshall, one day; he met the love of his life, a young lady named Shirley Horton. Robert and Shirley married on a cold bright morning, New Years Eve 1968, at the house of a local preacher in Zack. In 1970, they had a daughter, Tracy; and a son, Brandon was born in 1975.

He was a skilled carpenter, who built furniture, cabinets, and several houses. He was a soldier, and a Gulf War veteran in the National Guard. Most of all, though, Robert’s legacy is in the memories that he left behind; the hundreds of fun Summer days playing with the kids on the Buffalo River, the day he took his little granddaughter by the hand to find the first ripe strawberry of the season, or just a typical evening, sitting on the deck next to Shirley, holding her close, and watching the sun set.

Survivors include his wife, Shirley; son, Brandon; granddaughter, Hailey; sister, Gladys; and brothers, Troy and Thomas.

He is preceded in death by his parents, Robert and Velma Overstreet; brothers, Walter, Willie, and David; and daughter Tracy Campbell.

The family invites friends and family to join them in celebrating the life of him. Graveside services for him was 10:00 a.m. Thursday, September 14, 2023 at Nubbin Hill Cemetery near Leslie, Arkansas.