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Serving Columbus & Starkville, Mississippi        (https://cdstg1922.wpenginepowered.com/) Home  » (https://cdstg1922.wpenginepowered.com/news/) News  » Community Profile: Inside the Columbus U-Haul store, ‘Gunsmoke’ lives on   (https://cdispatch.com/news/columbus-lowndes-county/) Columbus & Lowndes County   Community Profile: Inside the Columbus U-Haul store, ‘Gunsmoke’ lives on By (https://cdispatch.com/author/pgreencdispatch-com/) Paloma Green  • 10 hours ago  • 5 mins to read   (Community Profile: Inside the Columbus U-Haul store, ‘Gunsmoke’ lives on)   Bobby Watkins sits behind the counter on Wednesday at his U-Haul Store on highway 45. Watkins has filled his U-Haul store with memorabilia from the TV show “Gunsmoke.” Paloma Green/Dispatch Staff  Bobby Watkins loves watching the look on people’s faces as they step into his U-Haul store off Highway 45. Walking through the front door, no one would blame you if you thought you had accidentally walked into a “Gunsmoke” museum instead. The store is lined with cases full of old scripts, pictures of guest stars and other memorabilia that belonged to James Arness, who played Marshal Matt Dillon on the show. Watkins grew up watching “Gunsmoke” with his father, Charlie Watkins Sr., who he considers to be “the No. 1 ‘Gunsmoke’ fan.” “I’m 64, and I can remember when I was 10 years old, (my grandfather and father) made me watch ‘Gunsmoke,’” Bobby said. “Now I watch ‘Gunsmoke’ because I want to. … Of course you couldn’t talk when ‘Gunsmoke’ was on. They’d throw whatever was close to them at you if you (talked) during ‘Gunsmoke.’” So about five years ago when Bobby saw listings on eBay for photographs of “Gunsmoke” guest stars Arness had collected over the years, he jumped at the opportunity to buy them all. He bought so many, he got the attention of Janet Surtees, Arness’ widow. “Once I got so many of them that’s when she called and said ‘What (are) you doing with this?’” Watkins said. “So when I actually showed her pictures of it, that’s when she told me, ‘Look I have a whole house full of his stuff. … It (doesn’t) have a huge value, but it’s his stuff.’ And I said, ‘That’s what I really wanted, his personal stuff.’ And that’s what we did, we got to be friends.” Bobby told Surtees about how his dad used to copy Dillon’s signature stance from the show in photos when he worked as a police officer. She asked to see photos, and in return, Surtees sent Charlie a signed book with an inscription that said, “You have a great Matt Dillon stance, just like my Husband James Arness.” She continued to gift “Gunsmoke” memorabilia to Charlie until he passed away three years ago. When Bobby told Surtees that Charlie had passed, she asked for one more photo of him doing the Matt Dillon stance. Two weeks later, Bobby received a mug from her in the mail with a picture of Charlie on one side and Arness on the other, in the middle it reads “Forever doin’ the stance.” (https://cdispatch.com/news/community-profile-inside-the-columbus-u-haul-store-gunsmoke-lives-on/attachment/pg-profile-img_0021/) ()    Bobby Watkins holds a mug on Wednesday that has a picture of his father and James Arness as Matt Dillon both doing the character’s signature stance, in the middle it says “Forever doin’ the stance.” Watkins was sent the mug by James Arness’ widow, Janet Surtees, after Watkins’ father passed away in 2023. Paloma Green/Dispatch Staff    “With all the millions of people that’s sending her stuff and asking her stuff, I thought for her to take time to do all that was pretty cool,” Bobby said of the mug. Charlie’s mug and signed book now sit next to one another in a special case at the front of the store. Always a collector Bobby only started collecting “Gunsmoke” memorabilia five years ago, but for as long as Tina Watkins, his wife of 42 years, has known him, he has loved collecting things. It is a passion he shares with his son, Ryan Watkins. “We got married (in) ‘84 and ever since, he’s always collecting,” Tina said. “… (Ryan and Bobby) like to sit there, and they’ll research things. The next thing you know … they’re buying this and getting that. But it gives them something to do. … Sometimes he’s real quiet, and you know then, he just bought something.” While Tina said the family’s driveway is overflowing with Bobby’s car collection, she does not let him store his collections in the house. Bobby instead opts to keep his collections at his U-Haul store to share his collection with other people. Today, the store is covered with “Gunsmoke” memorabilia, but before that, Bobby started a vintage U-Haul collection. The back two walls of his store, tucked in beside the “Gunsmoke” memorabilia, are lined with discontinued U-Haul offerings from the 1980s, like a tricycle or a pram the company used to offer for rent. There are also models of old trucks that customers’ children sometimes try to play with, Tina said. Bobby has run the U-Haul store for so long that some of the kids who once played with the old truck have returned to pick up a truck for moving in and out of college. He said he loves being a part of those exciting moments in people’s lives. Just as you’re leaving the U-Haul store, you’ll notice a hanging collection of patches left behind for Bobby by members of the Air Force who came to Columbus for training. “I’m the first one they see (when they arrive),” Bobby said. “And then I am the last one they see when they leave. And the greatest part of all is when they leave they say good-bye to me and Mississippi …and a few years later, about three years later, they come back as an instructor pilot. So they walk in the door and they’ll remember me and they’ll come in and say, ‘I’ll never say never again. I’m back in Mississippi.’ …I think that’s pretty cool.” (https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/copy_link?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdispatch.com%2Fnews%2Fcommunity-profile-inside-the-columbus-u-haul-store-gunsmoke-lives-on%2F&linkname=Community%20Profile%3A%20Inside%20the%20Columbus%20U-Haul%20store%2C%20%E2%80%98Gunsmoke%E2%80%99%20lives%20on) (Copy Link)  (https://www.addtoany.com/add_to/email?linkurl=https%3A%2F%2Fcdispatch.com%2Fnews%2Fcommunity-profile-inside-the-columbus-u-haul-store-gunsmoke-lives-on%2F&linkname=Community%20Profile%3A%20Inside%20the%20Columbus%20U-Haul%20store%2C%20%E2%80%98Gunsmoke%E2%80%99%20lives%20on) (Email)  (https://www.addtoany.com/share)      You can help your community Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. 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