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| Genevieve with her daughter Elsie and friend at Hanford. |
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Left to right are Betty, Elsie and Genevieve.
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Here is a rabbit book Bob and his wife Ethel authored.
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| Bob signed his book for me. |
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| Here are the insight in his own words. |
Who ate Genevieve and daughter Elsie? At Hanford, they came by my spot to chit chat. I have never met them in a show, and they did not knowwho I was. Since I have een in most of the shows every month for 34 years, it is unusual to find someone who had no idea who this crazy Angora lady was. Genevieve said to me, "My mom used to raise Angoras, she imported German Angora". My brain started workingovertime. I only know of three "lines" of German Angora imports. I replied, "Where did your mom live?" "Arroyo Grande". I knew who that was immediately, "Your mom is Dorothy Ames, dad Paul Ames and your grandfather is Bob Herschbach?" Genevieve was surprised beyond belief, this crazy Angora lady who she had never met identified her parents and grandfather in an instant.
Bob Herschbach was a legendary judge in the old days; when I started showing in the 80s, he had been judging forever. He was the breeder who reintroduced French Lop into this country and he bred down the size of French Lop to create the Mini Lop in the 70s. His son Dudley Herschbach is a Nobel laureate, and on the Nobel website, Dudley wrote, "My father was then a building contractor and later a rabbit breeder".
Bon had imported some of the best German Angora into this country in th 80s, he personally went to German to select the stock for his daughter Dorothy and we had heard Bob telling this story in shows often. In 1985, another Angora person was going to Dorothy's home to purchase a German Angora and I tagged along. Dorothy had a barn full of German Angoras in wire cages and had several colonies of French Angoras and English Angoras on the ground in trailers. I came home with one of her French Angora. It was the most Angoras in one place, except the ARBA conventions, that I've ever seen. I had seen many other German Angoras after that visit but none measured up to what Bob brough back from Germany.
Bob lived about 20 miles from my home, he shopped at the same feed store as I did so we bumped into each other often. He was also good friends with my rabbit mentor Barbara Baird, both of us visited Barbara often and had the chance of chatting many times.
Coming from a rabbit breeder family, Geneviene had only started taking her daughter to the youth shows. Hanford was they first open show that she and Kylie attended. I was very happy to have met them after knowing her grandfather and her parents so many years ago. Now that Bob and Dorothy and Paul had allpassed on, I got to meet the next two generations that are returnignt he their family tradition of raising rabbits.
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After reading the above, judge Chris Zemny shared her memories:
"Thanks Betty for sharing this! Bob lived about 2 miles from me, and I would go over to his home on Saturday and listen to him talk about rabbits. Some of the stories were repeated several times, but I really learned a lot, and that is what sparked me to become a judge.
He had so many cool projects, He had a colory of Mini Lops living on the ground. He had French Lops that he had bred with the RED gene, and the colors were from champagne to deep dark New Zealand Red, all due to modifiers. He had Blue Viennas, which were beautiful rabbits, but no longer in the standard. He actually made Holland Lops from scratch (they weren't good enough - LOL). I still remember him talking about Lilacs at a European show, and how they were a mass of "Pinky dove gray". Between all his anecdotal stories, I learned A LOT!!!
You brought me lots and lots of memories - THANKS YOU"
