Bonus: An LDS Faith-promoting story regarding Thomas Lacy Roberts

This is an abridged note from Linda Shanklin Jackson's journal regarding Thomas Lacy Roberts.

On Friday, Feb.16, 2001, I was on my way to Columbia to meet an appraiser and Ray White who is interested in buying Granny and Papa's house. As I passed Thompson Creek Road, the road off the Shelbyville highway that leads to Raus, I noticed a sign with a house for sale and thought, "I should go look at that house..." My grandfather grew up in the big beautiful Cooper/Landis house that sits high on the hill off that road.You can see it as you drive up from Shelbyville to Tullahoma. (Papa’s dad rented the house and farm, the house remains in the Cooper family to this day. It was the home of Prentiss Cooper , who was a governor of Tennessee) I thought "well, maybe it would be nice to live in Raus".
[Paragraph clipped: We went to the Nashville Temple and participated in temple ordinances on behalf of Thomas Lacey Roberts and Priscilla Parker as part of the trip to Columbia.  Then on the return trip...]

...as we left Shelbyville, I remembered the house for sale and told Andrew I wanted to take the road to Raus. I was quite adamant about it and anxious for it, and said on several occasions, "Are we almost there???"although I have been on that road many times. I never saw the house for sale and yet we kept going down the road. It was quite late in the day.

We passed a small lane and on passing, I said "Hey, Andrew, that sign said " Roberts Cemetery!" Andrew drove up just a bit and turned the car around. It would have been just as likely for him to say, " well, let’s come back and go that way some other time!" I said " I have never seen that sign...it must be new!" The lane was long and narrow and very steep. We climbed to the top of the hill and saw a small cemetery with what appeared to be a new chain link fence on the front.

from findagrave.com

I quickly got out, and Andrew brought me my coat. I opened the gate and saw names of Davis, Sons, and others, but no Roberts. To the left was a small cemetery enclosed in the old black iron fencing, with a gate. I opened the gate and went in. Andrew was close behind me. I read the inscription," Priscilla Roberts, wife of T.L.Roberts " at which point, Andrew said, "THOMAS LACY ROBERTS!" I was dumbstruck and overcome with emotion and love for my ancestors and my husband who was helping me to do their temple work and was willing to turn the car around. I flung my arms around the monument which was about 6 feet tall and 1 foot around, and hugged it and cried tears of gratitude for my ancestors for leading us here, immediately after we had done the work for them. What a moment in our eternity...what a coming together of our world and the next. I had not known where they were buried, nor had I shown any special interest in them, really. I have worked on their line...but there is much more to do, and now feel an extra urgency to find out what we need to do to seal them to one another and then seal their children to them.

So. I never saw the house...the one I so anxiously was looking for. I don't think it matters. I have not been thinking of moving to a house in Raus. I know now that it was just a way for the Spirit to get me down that road. What matters is we found the cemetery and feel pretty strongly their influence in our lives today. What a wonderful thing it is when the hearts of the children are turned to their fathers and the hearts of the fathers are turned to the children.