Born in Walnut Ridge, Arkansas into a humble beginning, Pershall went north to Missouri as a young man to pursue his special knack for handling and training horses, getting a job at the stables owned by Paul Bakewell, St. Louis, Missouri. Soon Pershall was working with Bakewells retrievers, at which he proved to be a natural. Bill Wunderlich recalls first meeting Cotton at a Minnesota Field Trial in 1937. That friendship transgressed World War II, the war dog training days at Fort Robinson, Nebraska, and lasted some sixty plus years.

The Spider of Kingswere, Brackens Sweep*, Rip*, King Buck*, Martens Little Smokey*, Marvadel Black Gum*, Shed of Arden*, Ace of Garfield, Little Pierre of Deer Creek, Truly Yours of Garfield, The Golden Kid, Nilo Staindrop Charger, Ace of Southwood, are a few of the famous Retrievers that Pershall trained and handled for the owners in Field Trials over fifty plus years such as: Paul Bakewell, Muriel King, Daniel E. Pomeroy, and for thirty of those years, John M. Olin, Nilo Kennels, Alton, Illinois. (*National Champions).

Respected, and renowned, as a Handler under the pressure of Field Trial competition, Pershall's legacy is that of a man who had an unusual, perceptive understanding of dogs and people, and one who always maintained a wonderful mannerism around people, and when under judgment handling his retrievers. T. W. Pershall was always the consummate gentleman.

As an acknowledgement to Pershall's knowledge and commitment to the retriever sport, he was selected to judge the 1979 National Retriever Championship.

After retiring from Nilo Kennels to his beloved farm in Eldon, Missouri with his wife Mayrene he continued to develop an occasional Field Trial prospect, tend his herd of Angus Cattle, until incapacitated by a stroke in February 1994.

- An excerpt from an obituary
Written by W. D. Connor
October 1999, RFTN