Robert Wayne "Bob" Jacobs

Mr. Robert Wayne “Bob” Jacobs, 86, passed away peacefully of natural causes on Monday, March 11, 2024 at 1:24pm following a trip to Elkhart General Hospital ER with a sudden illness.

Bob, also lovingly known as “Wayne” to his immediate family, was born in Lake City, Arkansas to the late Clyde and Lorena (Hall) Jacobs and then married Sue Ann Culp on May 6, 1961 in Elkhart. She turned out to be the love of his life and they’d be celebrating 63 blessed years together this May. She survives at home.

Also surviving are Bob’s sons Jeffery W. (Jane A.) Jacobs of Goshen and Jack A. (Shawn E.) Jacobs of Elkhart; brothers Roger (Pat) Jacobs of Rogers, Arkansas and twins Ronald “Ronnie” and Donald “Donnie” Jacobs, both of Walnut Ridge, Arkansas; sisters Gail (Don) Arnold of Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. Terry (Jim) Neely of Gate City, Virginia, and Barbara (Troy) Farriester, of Rogers Arkansas; grandchildren Amanda (Ian) Nielsen of Cassopolis, Michigan, and Nathan (Caitlin) Kantz of Elkhart; Rebecca (Aaron) Wilcher of Greenfield and Mitchell Jacobs, also of Elkhart, and great grandchildren Sadie, Owen and Emma Nielsen, Melanie and Riley Kantz and Beau, Adalyn and Brooks Wilcher. Bob is also survived by a loving host of extended family, in-laws and good friends; and is preceded in death by sisters Jean Fort of Pocahontas, Arkansas and Dena Haire of Atlanta, Georgia.  

Billings Funeral Home and Cremation Services of Elkhart is hosting the Homegoing Celebration for Bob starting with a public gathering of friends and family taking place on Thursday, March 14, 2024 from 4-6 pm. Services will follow the next day on Friday, March 15, 2024 at 1:00 pm with visitation beginning at noon. Burial will follow at Rice Cemetery in Elkhart.

Bob wore many caps throughout his life (his family would always say that he started out “down south” as a cotton picker when he was just a boy. He moved to Elkhart as a young adult and became a tool maker up here, and two of his occupations that really stood out was the restaurant that he and his wife, Sue Ann ran on the corner of CR 17 and SR 120 called the Valley Line Stop, located where McDonald’s is today. The pair served hot, freshly cooked meals to the folks of Bristol and Elkhart’s northeast side for over a decade. The other involved all the years he served answering literally millions of customer hardware questions at Palmer’s True Value Hardware in Elkhart and Wakarusa Pro Hardware in Wakarusa. Bob’s was a trusted and sought-after face down at the hardware stores for his seemingly endless supply of hardware facts, knowledge and skill that kept folks seeking his advice for years, and he was the true epitome of a “helpful hardware man”, to loosely coin a phrase…

At home, Bob was an avid gardener and worked tirelessly in his yard preening his lawn, tending to his vegetables and helping out Sue Ann with her flowers. Needless to say, his horticultural endeavors were always picture perfect because of all of the continuing education he was exposed to in the hardware business. It was joked he graduated “Magna Cum Laude” from Scott’s Lawn School because of his vast knowledge of lawn product applications and tree and plant identification.  

Bob was also a devout Christian whose Faith was very important to him and attended the First Baptist Church in Elkhart. He also enjoyed fishing, especially ice fishing, hunting and watching Notre Dame and the Louisville Cardinals. He’ll be best remembered for his vast personal knowledge of information and skill as well as his love for his family and his community.

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