Bob Nolan - Early Years

Early Years

Robert Clarence Nobles was born April 13, 1908 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada to Harry Nobles and Flora Elizabeth Hussey Nobles. The couple separated in 1915, and Flora raised her two little boys in Winnipeg.

In the summer of 1916, Flora temporarily moved her children to her husband's parents' home in Hatfield Point, New Brunswick. But, due to the machinations of his father, Bob never saw his mother again.

In the summer of 1919, Bob went to live with his aunt in Boston, Massachusetts. There he attended The Belmont School until 1921, when, at the age of thirteen, he moved to Arizona to live with his father, Harry, who had become a United States Army officer. He attended Safford Junior High School until 1922, when he transferred to Roskruge Junior High. In high school, he was an average student, was a member of the Arion Club choral group, and excelled in athletics. He graduated from Tucson High School in May 1928.

On July 7, 1928, less than two months after he graduated high school, Bob Nolan married his high school sweetheart, sixteen year old Tennie Pearl Fields. Thirteen months later, a daughter, Roberta Irene, was born to them, but the marriage foundered almost from the beginning.

After he left school, Bob Nolan drifted around the country, finding work where he could and always writing songs. He took a lifeguard job in Los Angeles in 1929. His father had changed his name to Nolan and it was as Bob Nolan that he began a career as a singer on the Chautauqua tent-show circuit and as a lifeguard in Santa Monica.