The Life of Bobbie Neal Overman Part 3

In 1968 Bob’s father John Carven passed away. He was eighty-eight years old.

John Carven Overman

If there is one thing that defined Bob Overman, it was his devotion to Janet and to his daughters. When Janet decided she wanted to move back to the San Joaquin valley to live closer to her parents, the decision was difficult for Bob. He was experiencing real success with his new business. They owned a home in the then sleepy town of Dana Point and prospects were looking up for the future. What no one realized at this point was that Janet was in the early stages of mental illness caused by a subtle hormonal imbalance in her body. Her thinking was becoming irrational and Bob didn’t understand why she was behaving so differently. Her parents were also bewildered by her behavior and couldn’t understand her sudden insistence on moving away from Dana Point. While Bob had never been their first choice for a son-in-law, Cecil and Winnifred understood the hard work he had put into his business and appreciated his dedication to his family. In the end Janet gave him an ultimatum: to either move with her or she and the children would move alone. He decided to move with his family.

In moving a part of Bob died. His hope for success was gone; the San Joaquin Valley was not an optimal place for his sort of business. Mostly an agricultural area, there weren’t many housing developments in need of his work and the demographics were vastly different from Southern California. He knew it would also be difficult to be near his in-laws; Cecil was an easy going man who could get along with nearly anyone, but Winnifred was not and she tended to find fault in nearly everything Bob did. Nonetheless, he tried to be positive about this new stage in his life.

Christmas 1970. Left to right: Bob, Cynthia, Jennifer and Janet

The first few months were spent living in the household of his in-laws. Winnifred and Janet bickered constantly and the men spent a good deal of time out in the garage to avoid it. Eventually, with Cecil’s help, Bob found a home to rent. He also found a piece of property for sale and imagined he could build a business and a home on the property. He started by building a barn, then he started looking for customers. His talent for selling himself helped him to get his business started, but it was a struggle. After two years of working to build his business he discovered the property he had purchased had a lien on it from the previous owner. In spite of having paid for the property - in cash – it was taken from him and his money was never refunded. Now he needed a home that had enough property for his business. He rented an old farmhouse with a large garage and side yard he could use as his paint yard.

As hard as he tried, Bob could not get his business to grow the way it had in Southern California. Work was piecemeal, no one wanted to pay for the work rendered, and he was often short on money, unable to make the rent or pay for gas for his welder. Cecil supplemented Bob's income when he was made aware of the situation. Meanwhile Janet’s mental illness deepened.

Cynthia, Bob, and Jennifer 1982

By now his oldest daughter was entering community college and his youngest was starting high school. The landlord decided he didn’t want to deal with renters any longer (though he had done nothing to maintain the house) and told Bob the family would have to move. Tired of trying to make ends meet, Bob decided to move into town and find a job in Reedley, a small farming community. Other than small businesses the town boasted several large packing houses and a box manufacturing company. Bob found work at the box company but with a downturn in the economy, he was laid off about two years later. Janet was too ill to be of any help. By now she spent her days in their bedroom and refused to see a doctor. Unable to find steady work he looked for piecemeal work to keep the family going. Finally he was able to find a job at a company in the neighboring town of Selma. It would be the last place he would work.