Published: June 08, 2009 04:59 pm      

Sole Searching

Lane retires from UP

Robert Lane may have retired at the end of May with 38 years under his belt with Missouri Pacific and Union Pacific railroads, but doing nothing is hardly in his future.

A little “sole” searching might be more like it.

Lane is reopening the City Shoe Shop at 110 W. Main St. today that his parents, Ernest and Clara Lane, began decades ago, in a building that he and wife Sandra have been working on refurbishing. Like under his father’s guidance, the shop will offer repairs on boots and shoes and sell western and work boots and leather goods.

Lane likes to joke that he’s had a 50-something-year apprenticeship from his father, who began the business in 1943 and plans to hang around the shop, and also notes that he’s benefitted from his friendship with Alan Heidbreder, owner of Heid’s Boot and Shoe Repair in Jacksonville.

“Dad and I bought the building in 1975 when downtown Palestine looked a lot different,” Lane said recently.

The couple received a Facade Improvement Grant from the Palestine Economic Development Corp. to restore the outside. They’ve drawn on resources such as Palestine Main Street Director and historic preservation expert Neely Plumb and architect Jim Peterson of the Texas Historic Commission for advice in bringing the historic building back to life and up to code.

“It’s kind of unique,” Lane said. “It had a second story bay window. We’ve got the downstairs in pretty good shape. The upstairs is an ‘opportunity’ in retirement. The interior needs work.”

That shouldn’t be anything that Lane can’t handle.

After graduating from the University of Texas at Austin in August, 1971 with a Bachelor’s in Business Administration, Lane was hired as a mail clerk at the Missouri Pacific’s freight claims office in his hometown of Palestine in October 1971 by Bob Miller.

He and Sandra met and married three years later, eventually expanding their family with two children — daughter Melanie and son Scott. Melanie, her husband Paul Dulworth and their son Andrew live in Houston where she teaches for Spring Branch Independent School District. Scott, a former coach and teacher at Palestine High School, has accepted a position at Malakoff as offensive coordinator and is marrying Emily Slavik later this month.

Lane also coached baseball and football at the YMCA and at the Palestine Youth Athletic Association, helping coach his son’s teams along with men like Paul Jenkins, Felder Gurganus, Don Bartula, Mike Paul, David Banks, Harold Campbell and Charlie Fisher.

He and his family also continued to worship at First Baptist Church, where Lane had been a member since boyhood and where he serves as a deacon.

As his family grew, Lane continued his career with the railroad, working in various jobs in the Freight Claims office until 1982 when he was promoted to manager of the company’s freight claims office, around the time that MoPac merged with Union Pacific.

Three years later, he transferred into the personal injury claims office in Dallas and managed claims operations there before transferring back to Palestine.

“That was a really hectic job,” Lane said. “I was really busy. I missed Palestine and I felt it was a good place to raise a family. I got a lateral move back to Palestine in 1989.”

In 2005, Lane took the opportunity to move back to the freight claims office, bringing his career full circle before retirement.

“When I went to work with Missouri Pacific, it was a good, strong company and I liked the people I went to work with,” Lane said. “Thirtyeight years later, it’s a stronger company today than ever. They’re still good people to work for and with.

“It’s been a good, solid living for me. They’ve taken care of my family.”

While staying with one company throughout a lifetime of work has ceased to be the norm, for Lane there was never a reason for change.

“I felt like if I worked hard, I would be rewarded for it,” he said. “There wasn’t any reason to go anywhere else. I never saw the grass as being greener anywhere else.

“It’s been a great career, really. I’ve enjoyed it.”

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Beth Foley may be contacted via e-mail at bfoley@palestineherald.com