After decades of entertaining local youth, the Skate America family says it has been 'an awesome run'

After more than three decades of offering Texarkana children fun and exercise, Bob Webb has hung up his skates and retired.

Webb, 87, said the decision to shutter the city's iconic Skate America was his and based solely on financial reasons. Webb, Skate America's sole proprietor, started the business on property he once owned on New Boston Road in Texarkana, Texas.

As the years passed and skating became less popular, Webb sold the building and became a tenant in order to keep the business going. Earlier this year, the building was sold again and Webb was forced to move quickly. Before vacating the old rink, the large extended Webb family spent Easter there hunting eggs, sharing memories and making a few new ones.

Since the relocation, revenue has not kept even with debt, the family said. Last weekend, after reviewing the numbers, it became clear the business didn't make enough to pay the bills due that week. Sunday evening, Webb made the difficult call to close the new rink.

Family members and "rink friends" worked from about 8 p.m. Sunday to 2 a.m. Monday to remove valuable equipment and new skates they feared could be stolen or vandalized. Webb's children and grandchildren all have full-time jobs, and many have young children. To get the job done, the family had no choice but to labor all night. What can be returned or sold will be in order to offset the business' existing debt, the Webb family said.

"Our first, number one priority is to make whole anyone who put down a deposit for a party," Webb's daughter Christy Seastrunk said. "Any checks that had not been cashed have been returned. We are asking that anyone who put down a deposit that hasn't been returned contact us so we can make arrangements to do that."

About a week ago, a woman with happy memories and good intentions set up a GoFundMe page meant to help with Skate America's financial situation. The woman has the same first name as one of Webb's granddaughters, Amber Shaw, which has created some unfortunate confusion. The family said they had no part of setting up the account and have tried to get it deactivated. Shaw said GoFundMe told her only the account creator can do that.

"She went to basic training the following day and can't have a cellphone for weeks," Shaw said.

Shaw and another of Webb's daughters, Cindy McPherson, said Skate America was much more than a way to earn a living for their patriarch and his late wife, Virginia Webb.

"There were always extra kids at the supper table," Shaw said.

The Webbs routinely took in young customers and employees who needed a place to go, a hot meal, and the love only a family can give. Bob Webb said he and his wife never minded when the number of unexpected guests for the evening meal meant they supped on sandwiches after the others ate what had been cooked for the family.

"I think back at all those kids and what they are today," Bob Webb said. "A lot of them have accomplished great things."

Bob Webb recalls handing a few dollars to children who didn't quite have enough for an entrance ticket to the rink.

"Virginia would just give them a ticket," Bob Webb recalled fondly. "This is just a sad story of somebody putting everything they had into their life-long business, and it didn't work."

Amanda Shaw describes her grandfather as a "chips all in" kind of man. Bob Webb's life includes military service and success as a barber, work in real estate development, construction and more.

"Once he wanted to get into emu farming," Seastrunk mused. "We did put the brakes on that."

But it was the rink and what it gave to the children of Texarkana that Shaw believes defines the grandparents who instilled a strong work ethic, unwavering faith and a love of family in all the Webbs' descendents.

"It is a sad ending to a wonderful 33 years. A sudden ending," McPherson said. "It's like a death in the family."

But the Webb family said they are committed to focusing on the good that has come from their Skate America experience.

"Thank you Texarkana for your decades of support," the family said. "It has been an awesome run."