Robert Earl Hughes Left Big Pants to Fill

This wonderful photograph was given to me by the Griggsville Area Genealogical and Historical Society. It shows (L to R) Florence (Dorsey) Walker, Stella Hannant and Edith Dorsey demonstrating just how large Robert Earl Hughes' special-made overalls were. The photograph was taken after Hughes' death.

A Young (Fuzzy) Robert Earl Hughes

While this picture was a bit too fuzzy to use in the book, I thought I would include it here as ever image of Robert Earl Hughes is a valuable one. The back of this pic has handwritten on it "Robert Earl Hughes - 24 -800 lbs". I highly doubt this though. It was perhaps written when he was 800 lbs and 24 years-old, but from my research, I believe the picture shows him at about 14-15 years of age when he was approximately 500 lbs.

A Year with Robert Earl Hughes

One of the many tributes to Robert Earl Hughes that did not fit into his biography was a unique piece of Hughesian memorabilia from 1982. Produced by Enoch Ham as an advertisement for his Fishhook "Mall" (a humorous title to anyone who has been in the one room general store), it was a low-budget calender for that year. It featured one of the photographs Hughes used to sell at his appearances in his last two years...the same image later utilized for the nice tribute-stone now in Fishhook, Illinois. I was blessed to have been given a copy of this calender when I spoke on Robert Earl in Pittsfield, Illinois.

Helping Robert Earl Hughes See

In the last years of Robert Earl Hughes' life, he was able to afford the glasses that he so badly needed most his life. Very few physical artifacts that belonged to Robert Earl still exist today due to a tragic fire at his family's home that engulfed his albums, books, clothes and walking stick. However, what did survive are his glasses. I was thankful to get to see and handle them when I visited the Hughes' farm in Emden, Missouri.

Robert Earl Hughes in Denmark

In the final chapter of my book, Robert Earl Hughes: The Largest Man to Ever Walk the Earth, I looked at the multitude of tributes that have been made to Mr. Hughes, including many different statues. One I missed though can be found in the Guinness World Records Museum in Denmark. Here can be found a unique sitting statue as seen below: