Collins T Robertson

Collins Trafton Robertson was born in 1908 in Portsmouth, VA where, beginning in 1932, he was a radio announcer and morning-show host at WTAR-AM. His popular show, Sunrise Serenade, began at 6 a.m. when he woke up his audience to the chattering of the "original" chipmunks by playing 48-rpm records at 78 rpm and then played music and dispensed the homespun wisdom of "Ol' Grandpappy."During his career, he was also the presidential announcer in Washington, DC, covering Franklin D. Roosevelt's...See more

Collins Trafton Robertson was born in 1908 in Portsmouth, VA where, beginning in 1932, he was a radio announcer and morning-show host at WTAR-AM. His popular show, Sunrise Serenade, began at 6 a.m. when he woke up his audience to the chattering of the "original" chipmunks by playing 48-rpm records at 78 rpm and then played music and dispensed the homespun wisdom of "Ol' Grandpappy."During his career, he was also the presidential announcer in Washington, DC, covering Franklin D. Roosevelt's fireside chats for the Mutual Broadcasting network. He also worked on the CBS staff in New York, Tulsa and Charlotte.Trafton wrote Tracy Tractor and the Little People in 1939 for his then one-year-old daughter, Carolyn. The original typed manuscript was discovered by her daughter, Pegge, tucked away in a closet, after she had passed away in 2022. This book is his son Dick and his granddaughter's tribute to their father and grandfather. See less