SPOTLIGHT ON COMMUNITY: Robert and Candace Thurman & Family

CDC-PHP Media Communications
1 day ago
4 min read

Robert Thurman

Robert was brought up in Pembroke where his birthright lies. He is the youngest of 11 children born to Roy Thurman a native of Pembroke since 1906.

His father, Roy, was in construction and left a historical legacy in buildings that he constructed like the old St. Clair Gas Station in Pembroke, IL and the old Purina Dog Chow building in Kankakee, IL among other historic sites. He was nearly 100 years old before he passed.

Roy maintained two family farms, one down south (in Magee, Mississippi) and another in Pembroke. “This is where we get our watermelons from at the beginning of the season that we sell at our farm stand in Pembroke”, Robert explains. “We have a small farm of 100 plus acres.”

I laughed, “Robert, the average person would not call 100 plus acres ‘small’.”

Robert followed in his family’s legacies and continues to run a construction business, Thurman Custom Works, https://www.facebook.com/ThurmansCustomWork, an art business, Higher Art Creative Learning Center, https://www.facebook.com/HCLC20, and a farm business, Roy Thurman & Son’s Family Farm, https://www.facebook.com/RTSFF.

“How do you keep up such a large farm, a construction business,” I asked, “and all these many endeavors?

He answers, “My family.”

Candace Thurman

Robert is married to Candace, a native of Chicago, Illinois, with 17 children, 10 girls and 7 boys, that includes a set of twin girls. Their ages are 41 through 13 years old with 10 grandkids and 2 great-grands.

Candace moved to Pembroke about 20 years ago and says she wouldn’t go back to the city even if she wasn’t married.

“Pembroke is beautiful. It has the most amazing sunsets and sunrises. I love the nature of it. It’s peaceful and we have good neighbors.”

Candace passions lie in cooking, crafting and floral arranging, but for the most part, she has her hands in everything the family is doing and supports everyone’s endeavors, sort of like the family manager as what a mother does.

Just having a big family is a kind of a business in and of itself. These days they are rare, but Candace came from a big family herself.

“I thought I would have two children, but coming from a big family myself, I was okay with having more. So, it was easy bringing everybody up.”

I chuckled, “Candace, you used the word “easy” to describe raising 17 children.” “Yes, it really was not a problem. I was blessed,” she replied.

It’s common in big families for the children to be homeschooled, so I asked Candace if they had homeschooled their children.

“We had 4 children at the time when I started to research homeschooling. I brought it to my husband and we agreed to bring them home and homeschool our children from then on.”

Robert is rooted here but Candace moved her roots here to stay and she has her own vision of what she would like to see for her community.

“I would like to see everyone come together, have a community store, and more activities and projects for the children for recreation.”

Then, I asked Robert, “What is your vision for Pembroke in all the work that you do?”

“I continue to donate lots of my time and knowledge to different programs in the community. I offer mentoring to children in the schools. I want to develop it to be a self-sustainable community. In the future I want to revive the historic gas station my father built and make it a service station. For now, I use it as our family construction business site,” Robert shared.

In addition to the construction company and the 100-plus acre family farm, Robert runs down for me a list of other family enterprises including those spawned by their children:

Thurman Family Enterprises

Higher Art Creative Learning Center, Inc. – Sons, William and Robert - Airbrushing business for over 35 years deal in all kinds of art. My dad did the airbrushing for this film, Original Gangstas (1996) filmed in Gary, IN and East Chicago. Higher Art has done special works for Bob Hoekstra of St. Anne, IL and one for Michael Jackson family.

https://www.facebook.com/HCLC20

Speedy Bros Transportation, LLC – Sons, Leeroy, Roy, Robert Lee and Robert (the second son by the same name of Robert)– transports RV’s for marine companies, large machinery and really anything all over the world. They had the honor of transporting for recording artist, Rick Ross.

https://www.facebook.com/SpeedyBrosTransportLLC

T.Smooth Music Productions – Son, Robert Lee produces music. He performs all over.

https://www.tsmoothofficialsite.com/.

Songs Playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLXzdzncbYPOcC-QAz85sWBPK7g_i_zC9C

https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLXzdzncbYPOcC-QAz85sWBPK7g_i_zC9C&v=GSrrUMcnpd0

Daughter, Henrietta - Hen Arts (on Instagram) has an enterprise in oil and face painting. https://www.facebook.com/henrietta.thruman

Daughter, Verniece, does praise and worship singing. She also does nail art.

https://www.facebook.com/verniece.thurman

Daughter, Mercedes wrote a book and participated in the CARES event that CDC-PHP hosted where local writers showcased their published works.

The twins, Candace and Candence, vending at the Latting Rodeo’s 50th Anniversary during Memorial Day weekend made a big hit with their lemonade.

Daughter, Janaya, with the assistance of Henrietta at times do facepainting at different functions and does personal fitness on call.

https://www.facebook.com/TopnotchEv

https://video.wixstatic.com/video/0af9c7_707b8c65568f42968929301bd2cd03e6/1080p/mp4/file.mp4

Son, Jarvis works the family farm down south.

Robert proudly mentions that his youngest daughter Gail, still holds the title for Little Miss Pembroke because they haven’t had another pageant since then. That was 3 years ago.