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WENTWORTH — Had it not been for injuring his legs on two occasions, C.D. “Bobby” Vernon, 82, probably never would have written a book.

But after being confined to a recliner for weeks on end, the former Rockingham County sheriff decided to use that time to tell the story of his life.

“Memoirs of Sheriff Clinton D. ‘Bobby’ Vernon” was first published in 2006, said Vernon’s wife, Mollie. 

She said Vernon broke his right leg after an ice storm in January 1999. He was trying to hook up a trailer loaded with wood when he stepped on a slick spot. He broke both bones in the lower part of his leg.

After surgery at Moses Cone Hospital in Greensboro, Vernon was hospitalized for a week.

“When he came home, he basically was confined to a chair for several weeks” — something Vernon had a hard time coping with, Mollie said.

His former secretary, Debbie McDaniel, brought him a tape recorder and placed it on a table beside his chair. Vernon began using it to recall incidents from his past. When he thought of something, he picked up the microphone and told the tale. One tale led to another.

The recording stopped, and the recorder and tapes were put aside when Vernon began walking again.

Fourteen months later, Vernon hired Ben Carter to help him cut down dead pine trees on his Almond Road farm.

“I took two saws with me because Ben had a habit of hanging them up,” Vernon said. He was sitting on a stump watching Carter cut down his second tree when he decided to help by cutting the small limbs off the tree.

Vernon picked up the other saw and began trimming the limbs from the downed tree. As he cut a limb off the tree, the chain saw hit a small sapling, causing it to kick back and hit Vernon on the left leg. His leg was cut to the bone.

Vernon called Carter over to drive him to the hospital. After getting in the truck, Vernon put his belt around his leg and held on, telling Carter if he passed out “to just keep going.”

It wasn’t until much later that Vernon found out Carter didn’t have a driver’s license and hadn’t driven a vehicle in years, Vernon relates in his book.

Emergency personnel at Annie Penn Hospital were unable to get the bleeding under control so Vernon was rushed to Cone.

“At one point, they thought he had died, but they got his heart started again,” said Mollie who was in the emergency room with her husband.

Again he was in the hospital for about a week. Then he developed problems and was sent back to Cone, ending up in the ICU unit for 10 days and in a regular room for another two weeks.

Finally home again, Vernon went back to his recording. “He got so bored; he is an active person,” Mollie said.

During this time, Vernon decided he would write the book for his children and grandchildren. Mollie transcribed from the tapes, putting it in the right order and “cleaned up some of his English.”

Felts Printing in Reidsville printed and bound the book with about 50 coming off the press in the fall of 2006.

People heard about the book and began asking for copies. That Christmas, Mollie said people were in and out trying to get the book for gifts.

Since it is a biography, the book begins with Vernon’s birth on April 19, 1929, to Percy Herman and Clara Stewart Vernon. He had two sisters, Blanche and Faye, and a brother, Stuart.

They lived close to his grandparents and the two men farmed together. The children grew up helping on the farm.

He tells of catching the school bus, eating the lunches their mother packed, doing their chores when they got home from school.

“We only had two sets of clothes, a set of work clothes and our school clothes,” Vernon wrote. “Since I had only one pair of overalls to wear to school for the whole week, I would change into the old ones to work.”

At Wentworth High School, Vernon met his first wife, Lucy Lee Toms. He talks about their courtship and subsequent marriage.

The draft took Vernon into the Army. He went to work for the state prison department in 1956 after getting out of the service.

Two years later, Vernon was promoted and transferred to Raleigh to work as an extradition officer.

His tales of his experiences and travels across the country in those years are interesting and often humorous.

After his first marriage failed, Vernon met Rebecca London, and they were married in 1966. They had been married only nine years when Becky, 37, died, leaving Vernon with two small children to raise.

Two years later, Vernon decided to run for sheriff of Rockingham County. He had a lot of support and won the election, taking office the first Monday of December 1978.

It “was probably one of my proudest moments,” Vernon wrote. Much of the book is devoted to his 20 years in office .

He also talks about meeting Mollie, whom he married shortly after the election.

Vernon was defeated in the 1998 election, but he said he “enjoyed almost every minute of” his long tenure.

“I enjoyed being in office  ...” he said. “Over the years, I have made some good long-lasting friendships and have experienced some exciting things.”

Reidsville native Ann Fish has lived in Eden since 1979. Contact her at annsomersfish@yahoo.com.