It’s a tough day when any hometown business closes, but the loss of Robert Hall Chevrolet in Jayton, which is revising its business model this week after more than six decades, it’s the loss of a landmark and an anchor of the community.
In population-533 Jayton, Texas, every business is essential. The popular Kent County General Store, which serves up meals, groceries, household and farm essentials, and gifts; the Co-op, which also pumps gas; the bank; the Jaybird Storage outfit, and a handful of others supplement the employment and enterprise represented by county, city and school district offices.
But standing tall above them all until last Friday was the gold bowtie sign of Robert Hall Chevrolet. The full-service dealership, founded by Robert G. Hall after World War II, has served as a mark of pride for the town, and also as a key generator of tax revenue; county judge Jim C. White estimates registrations and tax receipts from new car sales added as much as $50,000 to county coffers annually.
Locals understand that change was probably inevitable following the November 2019 death of longtime business leader Robert E. Hall at age 73. Compounded by the 2020 pandemic slowdowns and continuing supply-chain woes, the difficulties would’ve been difficult to overcome in any size market.
“So sad to see this,” commented Ester Martinez on the Double J Chronicles Facebook posting. “I remember many visits with Robert Sr. In his office. Great memories.”
Founders of the business
Hall family members looked back on their own history, shared this week with The Texas Spur by current manager Jay Hall.
Robert G. Hall was born in Cooper, Texas, on October 28, 1921, and his family later moved to Ralls, Texas, where he grew up on the family farm. His father farmed the land with several teams of mules and a breaking plow. Robert G. didn’t much care for the work of a farmer and vowed to leave the family farm and never come back as soon as he was of age. He later moved to Lubbock, Texas, where he worked for the United States Department of Agriculture sampling and grading cotton.
Before being called to military service in World War II, Hall married Clara Angeline Wild. He had learned how to type, and even won a typing contest when he was young. He attributed his typing ability to keep him alive during the war. Until his dying day, he typed business correspondence on an old Underwood manual typewriter he kept on his desk.
Hall began his career in the automobile business by buying and selling used cars soon after that in Lubbock. He told the story many times that he would buy a car (and two trucks) from Lewis Mason of Mason Chevrolet in Jayton, Texas. Mason would make Hall buy two pickup trucks for every car because in the 1940s pickup trucks were not popular, and everyone wanted cars.
Little did Lewis Mason or Robert G. Hall know that trucks would be the foundation of the family business for decades to come. While doing business, Hall and Mason became friends. In 1954, Mason became deathly ill, and Hall and Charlie Wild, his brother-in-law, purchased Mason Chevrolet and started Hall-Wild Chevrolet.
Robert E. Hall was in third grade when the family moved to Jayton to make their lifelong home. Soon after that, Kathy Jean Hall was born. Robert G., or Big Robert (as he would become known) and Charlie obtained a floor plan from General Motors and began stocking the dealership with more cars than anyone had ever seen in the town of Jayton.
Robert G. recounted a conversation he overheard outside the drug store when the cars (and trucks) started rolling in and being unloaded off the train. “I wonder what those city slickers (Robert G. and Charlie) are going to do with all those cars?”
Today, all those years later, no one wonders what happened to all those vehicles. Soon after that, the dealership became affectionately known by the same old-timers as “Hog Wild” Chevrolet due to their volume of sales. The dealership became recognized over its long and honorable history with Top Dealer and hundreds of sales and customer service awards.
After graduating from Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene, Robert Edward Hall (Little Robert) became affiliated with the dealership and moved back to Jayton. Robert E. married Sherry Kay Stanford, and they had three children, Tra, Jay, and Ray, all of whom as adults would be affiliated with the dealership. For years, Robert E. was awarded the top truck salesperson in the Dallas Region of Chevrolet. Robert E. also acquired the Mobil Oil distributorship for the area sometime after that.
Change in the industry
In 1970, for a brief period, Robert G. sold his interest in the dealership to Charlie Wild and took over as president of the Kent County State Bank upon the sudden death of his business partner in the bank. This arrangement was shortlived, and Robert G. bought out his partner and brother-in-law Wild. The dealership then became Robert Hall Chevrolet.
The 1970s were not kind to business nationwide. Stagflations—double-digit interest rates, inflation, and unemployment—were a problem for people in business throughout the country, much to the chagrin of Robert G., a lifelong conservative Republican. However, the dealership’s floor plan was locked in at 6% interest due to Texas’s usury laws, which prohibited sole proprietors from being charged higher rates of interest. General Motors soon grew tired of this situation and forced Robert G. to incorporate it so they could charge 21% interest rates on the floor plan. The dealership then became Robert Hall Chevrolet, Inc.
Sometime later, the Oldsmobile Franchise was added. The business became Robert Hall Chevrolet/Oldsmobile, Inc. General Motors later eliminated the Oldsmobile Franchise nationwide.
Passing of the torch
Robert G. Hall passed away on August 18, 2004 after multiple heart attacks, colon cancer, and lung cancer on.
Robert E. Hall took over the ownership of the Chevrolet franchise and became the sole owner until his death on November 19, 2020. Many neighbors and friends—including newspaper and attorney Don Richards, whose father had once published The Jayton Chronicle and who served as best man at the wedding of Robert E. and Sherry Kay Hall—shared memories of what the Halls had meant to them and to the community.
The following January, the Kent County Junior Livestock Show, of which the Hall family had been longtime supporters, was dedicated to the memory of Robert E. Hall.
Challenges for small-town dealerships
Automotive News, the industry publication for automobile dealers, published an article on October 12, 2015 titled “The Slow Steady Demise of the Small-town Dealership.” The changing demographics of America away from rural life combined with General Motors’ desire to eliminate smaller dealers, the author wrote, had dramatically impacted small-town dealers. The article estimated that a small-town dealer’s cost to simply be affiliated with a major domestic manufacturer was somewhere between $17,000 and $20,000 a month before a single car was ever sold, in addition to other overhead.
General Motors and other manufacturers began restricting small-town dealers’ ability to obtain new inventory and placing excessive pressure on those same dealers to build “brand approved” and costly facilities to meet franchising requirements. Before his death in November 2020, Robert E. Hall made the difficult decision to sell the franchise territory and retire.
In his book “The Automobile and American Life,” historian John Heitmann explained it like this: “A significant institution in American communities is being pulled down.” When a familyowned dealership (like Robert Hall Chevrolet) shuts down, Heitmann wrote, “it won’t just be the end of the business. It will undo a fabric of relationships that span generations. The closing will have a ripple effect on employees, customers, and the town.”
Robert Hall Chevrolet is the last of these small-town familyowned dealerships between Lubbock and Abilene to survive.
A multi-generational legacy
“For over sixty-seven years and three generations of Halls,” wrote Jay Hall, “it has been our honor and privilege to serve our community’s automotive needs. Our employees have always been more like family than anything else, and we’ve had some characters affiliated with us. The legacy that Robert G. (Big Robert) and Robert E. (Little Robert) leave behind is one of honest and fair dealings to a beautiful community that we have called home for all these years. Jayton and the surrounding communities have been good to our family, and it is with great sadness that we say farewell to Chevrolet and General Motors.”
What the future holds
The Chevrolet Territory, ac cording to Jay Hall, was sold to Mitch Hall and Lawrence Hall Chevrolet (no family relationship) in Anson/Snyder. Calls to the new territory owners were not returned by press time.
When the bowtie sign was dismantled June 18 and a photo was posted on the local Double J Chronicles Facebook page, comments poured in.
Connie Martinez of Jayton noted, “Awe, so sad…I know God has good plans for them… Love this family.” One poster recalled learning to ride a bicycle on the premises. Robert Waddell wrote, “Well. I will always Remember My Good Friend and his Family Mr Robert Hall.”
Ray Hall will continue to provide quality automotive service, pre-owned sales, and AC Delco Parts in the same build ing, under the business name Robert Hall Motors.
Motor vehicle inspections and tuneups will still be available at the familiar building on Highway 70 across from the courthouse—as will the memories of those who sealed a deal with a pen and a handshake, or bought their first car, or were rescued from a roadside breakdown.
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