Robert Porterfield

Robert Huffard Porterfield (December 21, 1905 – October 28, 1971) was an American actor and theatre director who was best known for founding the Barter Theatre in Abingdon, Virginia. The theatre was founded in 1933 during the Great Depression. In 1941, it was designated as the State Theatre of Virginia, but with the bombing of Pearl Harbor and America entering World War II, the grant promised by the Commonwealth's legislature was put off. Young men either enlisted or were drafted into the U.S. military, and the theatre went dark from 1942 to 1945. Porterfield, too, was drafted. He returned to Abingdon in 1946 to reopen the theatre. As promised in 1941, the legislature came through with a $10,000 grant. Porterfield served as artistic director of the year-round repertory theatre until his death in 1971. His most prominent, credited film role was in the 1941 film Sergeant York in which he portrayed Zeb Andrews, a local rival of the title character played by Gary Cooper. Family history Robert Porterfield was born in Austinville, in Wythe County, Virginia, the fifth generation of Porterfields born in the United States. His great-great-great-grandfather arrived in the American colonies from Scotland in about 1760, probably through the port of Philadelphia. Like many immigrants of Scots, Irish, Scots-Irish, or German descent, he traveled from Pennsylvania down the Wilderness Road into the lush and fertile Shenandoah Valley. Finding that most of the best land was already staked out and occupied, he pushed on until finding some "unclaimed" real estate in Southwest Virginia, what is now called Glade Spring. All such colonists ignored the claims of Native Americans to their traditional territories. Early life and education Born December 21, 1905, near Austinville, Virginia, Robert was the third of six sons of Daisy (Huffard) and William Breckenridge Porterfield. In 1909, Robert's father accepted a position as overseer of some of land and moved the family to Saltville, Virginia. The family's new home was a large farmhouse about a mile south of the town. Robert and his brothers shared in all the work of the farm. At the age of seven, Robert staged his first play for cousins, with extended family as players and audience, in the family's two-story barn.