DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, as best as Duane can render it for you. Now, Albany, Texas has given the world a fair number of things worth talkin' about, but few as quietly remarkable as Robert Edward Nail, Junior. Most folks who knew him called him Bobby, and that name alone ought to tell you something about a man whose story stretches from a small West Texas town all the way to the ivy-covered halls of Princeton University.
Bobby Nail graduated from Albany High School in 1926. From there he traveled east — way east — to Lawrenceville Prep School in New Jersey, and then on to Princeton, where his literary activities were, the marker says, highly acclaimed. Now think on that for a moment.
A kid out of Shackelford County, making a name for himself in those circles. That's not nothing. That's something.
But here's where it gets interesting, because Bobby Nail did not stay back East and forget where he came from. He came back to Texas. Before returning to Albany, he directed theater groups in Fort Worth, Dallas, and Abilene.
The man was building something — honing a craft, finding a voice, and somewhere in that process, he was clearly thinkin' about home. Then in 1938, he sat down and wrote a piece called Doctor Shackelford's Paradise. That work became Fort Griffin Fandangle — the oldest outdoor musical in Texas.
Oldest. Not one of the oldest. The oldest.
That's a legacy with some weight to it, and it started right there in Albany. And Bobby Nail didn't stop there. His production of the nativity is still presented in Albany to this day.
Still. The man shaped how an entire community tells its stories, year after year. In 1947, Albany named him its outstanding citizen.
In 1966, he was appointed to the Fine Arts Commission of Texas. The work kept rippling outward long past any single performance. And if you want to find where that legacy lives now, you don't have to look far.
It's in the Old Jail Art Center. It's in the Robert E. Nail Archives.
It's in the Robert Nail Scholarship Fund, carrying his name — and his belief in the power of art — forward to people he never got to meet. Bobby Nail graduated from a high school in a small Texas town, crossed the country, and then came back and gave that small town something the whole state still claims as its own. Not a bad return trip.
What the marker says
Robert (Bobby) Nail graduated from Albany High School in 1926. In New Jersey, at Lawrenceville Prep. School and Princeton U., his literary activities were highly acclaimed. Nail directed theater groups in Fort Worth, Dallas and Abilene before returning to Albany. In 1938, he wrote Doctor Shackelford’s Paradise, which became Fort Griffin Fandangle, the oldest outdoor musical in Texas. His production of the nativity is still presented in Albany. He was named outstanding citizen of Albany in 1947, and appointed to the Fine Arts commission of Texas in 1966. His legacy can be found in the Old Jail Art Center, Robert E. Nail Archives, and Robert Nail Scholarship Fund.