Bob, a lawyer, served as an Alabama state senator in 1900 and was reelected in 1902. Three years later the 32 year old lawyer-legislator was shot and killed by a farmer to whom he was attempting to deliver some legal papers.

Sarah J. Lee Westbrooks covers this incident in more detail in her excellent, interesting and well-documented book, “North Carolina Hipps and their descendants, vol. 1”, (Dallas, GA: Richards Printing Co. 2000)