Robert Rhone, Jr

• Publication year: 1996
• Pages: 15
• Citation: Vol. 25 No. 7 Pg. 15

25 Colo.Law. 15 Colorado Lawyer 1996.

1996, July, Pg. 15. ROBERT RHONE, JR

---

15

Vol. 25, No. 7, Pg. 15

ROBERT RHONE, JR

by Irving P. Andrews

Irving P. Andrews, who has been a lawyer in Colorado for over forty-years, practiced law with Robert Rhone, Jr.

[Please see hardcopy for image]

Let it flame or fade, and the war roll down like a wind,

We have proved we have hearts in a cause, we are noble still,

And myself have awaked, as it seems, to the better mind;

It is better to fight for the good than to rail at the ill;

I have felt with my native land, I am one with my kind,

I embrace the purpose of God, and the doom assign'd.

Alfred Lord Tennyson(fn1)

His Life

Robert Rhone, Jr., was born on March 21, 1928, in Cheyenne, Wyoming, at that time a very unpretentious western town. Bob's grandfather participated in the first Frontier Days held in Cheyenne over a hundred years ago. Bob's father, Robert Rhone, Sr., better known as "Buck" Rhone, was the first black child born in the state of Wyoming. His mother, Sudie, was a black woman from Texas. Together they established in the state of Wyoming what is now known as the "Rhone Dynasty."

Bob's brother, Tommy Rhone, is an executive vice-president with the Kaufman Foundation, which specializes in granting scholarships to needy black students aspiring to a college education, a job he took following his retirement as principal of a high school in Kansas City, Kansas. Bob's sister, Elizabeth Byrd, is a retired teacher who taught in the Cheyenne public schools. She also is retired from the Wyoming state senate, where she served commendably for a number of years. Another of Bob's sisters, Delores Briggs, is the wife of a retired Air Force colonel. Both of Bob's parents attended college. They taught the four Rhone children the necessity of black children receiving the best education possible so they can compete in the often hostile world with which they would be confronted.

Through the hard work of his parents, Bob was provided with a comfortable economic and social environment. The black population in Cheyenne itself was nominal. Bob and his siblings grew up in an atmosphere that was, at least through his high school years, relatively free of racial tension. Bob developed brilliantly as a student, as well as as an athlete---he lettered in both football and basketball, where he learned to "play by the rules."

After...