<![CDATA[HEITZMAN SIONS - About]]>Thu, 21 May 2026 13:36:15 -0700Weebly<![CDATA[Heitzman Sions]]>Sun, 01 Nov 2015 13:03:21 GMThttps://www.heitzmansions.com/about/heitzman-sionsHeitzman Sions
"From the Best Come the Best"
"Where KY Banded Racing Pigeons Remains a Tradition"

Here at The No Sweat Lofts located in a rural setting within Richmond, Kentucky, USA, close to where Heitzman once lived, we are proud to report that the old Heitzman Sions are very alive and well as you can see from the many photos taken around our lofts just in the past few years. Our goal is to continue to refine the old Heitzman Sions and develop them into the most beautiful long distance racers in the world. In the past ten years we have been setting remarkable long distance records with young birds flying back as far as 1,200 miles. Each year we normally take all our young birds out to at least 500 miles down into Florida as their last release.   

Our Heitzman Sions must earn their keep. They are the end results of much genetic study and year-in and year-out down-the-road training. Our birds are medium in size, wonderfully balanced and normally own outstanding physical qualities. We continue to refine the racers with each ongoing year and now are seeing several of our longer distance Sions actually becoming somewhat smaller in size on the whole. Our primary colors are blue bars, silver bars, mealies, light red checks and blue checks. Their eyes range in coloration but the majority have red-orange colored eyes. Some of our Sions that go back onto "Le Rouselette" and "Old Gris Family" have "black" eyes, or variations of those eyes which are not truly black, but rather very rich and intricate dark colored eyes that have been famous in association with outstanding Sions for nearly 100 years. 

Earl Lowell "Robbie" Robbins, Jr. aka "No Sweat" Kentucky Author having had Sions for 58 years, and his long time friend and partner, John Hayes, have been working closely together for the past ten years. Over that time, after much devotion and intricate record keeping, they have created four lofts now owning  the best true old racing Heitzman Sions in the world. And yes, they band their Heitzman Sions with the famous old iconic "KY" bands that were once always reserved solely for Charles Heitzman himself. And they even train their racers now using Heitzman's actual old wicker racing baskets that Heitzman himself once used. Robbins was a life long close friend to Charles Heitzman, often taking care of his birds. Robbins has written many articles and stories about Heitzman having appeared in pigeon magazines all over the world. Additionally, Robbins has won over 800 first places with racing homers during his life, many major futurity races, as well as having judged the largest racing pigeon shows in the USA, having set incredible records at them himself that remain to this day still unbroken. You can learn more by going to other websites: The Other Sion Specialist No Sweat, Dreams Roosted There by No Sweat, Kentucky Author No Sweat, These Precious Days by No Sweat.

We hope that your close study of all the photos will speak for themselves.
Blessings.

]]><![CDATA[Biography]]>Fri, 06 Mar 2015 17:36:57 GMThttps://www.heitzmansions.com/about/biographyBiography 
 "NO SWEAT" KENTUCKY AUTHOR    

     Kentucky author, Earl Lowell "Robbie" / "No Sweat" Robbins, Jr., Born 1951, Pattie. A. Clay Hospital,  Richmond, Ky. Graduated from  Irvine, Kentucky HS, '69.  Entering Eastern Kentucky University he became one of Coach Don Combs' "Electrifying Eels," swimming long distance events for one of the best swim teams in the nation. He received his BA, MA in  anthropology and sociology, '73-'75  During his senior year, January 6, 1973,  he married Ruth Chesteen Hall in the university's chapel. On December 26, 1977, they had their only child, Nancy Chesteen, the mother of Lance Lowell Fuller and Barrett Mathew.
    "No Sweat" began writing as a boy often sitting for hours alone in a corner chair in the apartment that he grew up in, belonging to his grandfather, Russell  McClanahan. This apartment was located at the end of the Irvine, Kentucky Bridge and situated nearly atop his grandfather's "MACK" theater. In the production of the movie, THE FLIM FLAM MAN, staring George C. Scott, there is a scene in which Flim  Flam Man is filmed recklessly driving across the same actual bridge. No Sweat's uneducated and domineering father operated a small fruit and vegetable stand located across the street of the apartment and his mother sold tickets in the theater; both were alcoholics. "No Sweat" spent much of his growing years swimming in the near-by Kentucky river, playing along the railroad tracks beside the apartment, being with his grandfather inside the theater, hunting Indian relics in the near-by plowed fields, catching pigeons roosting on the bridge and camping and caving while a boy scout in Troop 144 under the scoutmaster, Charles Vanhuss.
     "No Sweat" eventually found publishers to take some of his work in 2012; editor Rudy Thomas, Old Seventy Creek Press, publishing THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by No Sweat,  and editor Carol Itoh, Itoh Press, publishing NEFARIOUS by No Sweat. In late August, 2015 No Sweat completed a book he had been working on and off on for over 30 years called LA GUERRE EST FINIE;  in 2015, he changed the title to, MY SINGER ISLAND.  As of this writing the book is currently being looked at by editors and NY literary agents in hopes it will find a publisher. MY SINGER ISLAND is a 700 page non-fiction memoir taking place over sixty summers on Singer Island, Florida; many of those summers while living three month stints at The Colonnades Beach Hotel; The work involves No Sweat's relationship with John D. MacArthur, then the richest man in the USA, Luisa Lang and her father Will Lang,  LIFE magazine's best WW2 war correspondent and good friend of Ernest Hemingway,Arlo Gunthrie, folk singer, Guy Davenport, Literary critic, the Kennedy family and many others; along with the 300 pages of text are some 400 photographs; It is "a book for everyone," states No Sweat.  
     THESE PRECIOUS DAYS by No Sweat is a 1979-81 journal taking place in a mythical eastern Kentucky region called, "Aopehh." It is written in first person and chronicles the life of its main character, No Sweat. No Sweat's close associates are a depressed West Point graduate that went on to become one of the nation's most distinguished SAC bomber pilots during the height of the Cold War era named "Black Hole." There is also a musically inclined, financially irresponsible attorney having once been arrested for growing marijuana named "Swallowtail."   Another is a failed school teacher in love with the outdoors, named, "Dark Star,” and the near-retarded, heroin-addicted son of a medical doctor named "Doc."  All these characters intertwine to paint life in this area of Appalachia. "No Sweat" spent thirty years in developing this journal, enduring through nearly 800 rejections before finding a publisher.
     NEFARIOUS by No Sweat takes place primarily in Estill County, Kentucky, 1836-1857, chronicling the adventures of Estill County’s first legally hanged outlaw, Edward. W. Hawkins reported to have been the most handsome man in Kentucky. No Sweat devoted twenty-six years developing this novel, vowing to stay true to Ed's spirit and his surroundings. NEFARIOUS is based on booklet that was first published fifty years after Hawkins was hanged, The Confession of Edward W. Hawkins. 
 In November ,2015, No Sweat is busy completing new books, LETTERS FROM A GENIUS TO AN OAF, detailing his life with his writing mentor, Guy Davenport.  And also,  THE CONFESSION OF EDWARD W. HAWKINS, FACT & FICTION; this will be the absolute definitive work done on the famed Kentucky outlaw.. 
     Other writing projects that he hopes will find publishers are BLACK BLUEGRASS, a collection of short stories he experienced while working in a small liquor store surrounded by black Americans in eastern Kentucky, PIGEON, a collection of stories involving his experiences and imaginations with racing pigeons and his lifelong relationship with Charles Heitzman of the French Sion fame. Of note, No Sweat is a National acclaimed champion with racing pigeons having won more than 800 first places in both showing and racing. UNBRIDLED, currently another one of his works in progress, is a collection of archaeological stories that No Sweat has experienced including his discovering the largest group of Arawak burials ever located in the Bahamas on an island called Eleuthera. His twenty-five years of excavations at Lincoln's experimental Civil War city, Camp Nelson, the thirty days he spent digging with the University of Kentucky while excavating Fort Boonesborough, his narrow escape from marijuana growers while digging some of the finest Kentucky red agates --some of which are now with The Smithsonian. And ES#1, THE PRYSE SITE, an archaeological work in which No Sweat spent four years off and on excavating eighteen, Motley period (carbon 14 dating 1,130 BP) ,skeletons digging  twenty-two feet deep in a cave. And last, he hopes to complete a photo essay encompassing his beautiful wife’s life entitled, CHESTEEN.

]]><![CDATA[The Other SION Specialist ]]>Thu, 05 Mar 2015 17:48:35 GMThttps://www.heitzmansions.com/about/the-other-sion-specialistPicture
The Other SION Specialist in the Picture


Meet the man standing to the the right of Charles Heitzman
in the picture featured on the World of Wings website.



In 1974, E. Lowell Robbins, Jr. aka "Robbie" or "No Sweat" became the youngest racing pigeon breeder ever to win the National Show in New York; a feat that still remains to this day. In 1978, he won the top three shows in the USA and was the first man ever to do this thus setting a new bar in excellence. Over the years some of the major shows that he has judged have been THE NATIONAL YOUNG BIRD SHOW, THE SOUTHERN RACING PIGEON SHOW, THE SOUTHERN RACING PIGEON--DIXIE SHOW, THE MIDWEST OPEN SHOW, THE LOUISVILLE COMBINE SHOW, THE KENTUCKY STATE FAIR SHOW, THE BELLVILLE, ILLINOIS SHOW, THE CHICAGO COMBINE SHOW, etc. He has been throughout the United States and inside many of its premiere racing lofts. The best racing man he ever knew was Charles Heitzman. In showing, his lifelong friend, Jim Isselhardt was always his best competition. At the National Young Bird Show in Louisville when Douglas McClary from England flew over to judge more than 500 young bird racing homers divided into 18 classes, Robbins won 17 of those classes; Jim Isselhardt won one class that he did not and in that class the judging was extremely "flip a coin" close as was so stated by McClary. This class was the BBYC class in which Robbins placed second. That one BBYC went onto win the show and became one of Jim's favorite show birds of all times, "NATIONAL LEGEND." When Robbins entered THE SRPA SHOW each year throughout the southern states in the USA it was quite arguably the most competitive and prestigious show in all of America. Robbins entered this show seven times and won the show each and every time. No other fancier in the United States has ever replicated this feat. In racing, Robbins dominated his club during the years he flew with them winning average speed every season and never being beaten from any race 300 miles or beyond. Across the USA he set a new money winning record in 1971 in THE TWIN CITY GOLD BAND FUTURITY; he also bred the winners of THE BLACK HAWK FUTURITY, THE CONRAD MAHR FUTURITY, THE WALDO HOTCHKISS FUTURITY, THE LEXINGTON, KENTUCKY FUTURITY, THE CHARLES HEITZMAN MEMORIAL 500 MILE RACE and large races in New Orleans, Cincinnati, New York, etc.. Altogether in his more than 58 years experience with racing pigeons Robbins has accumulated over 800 first places. Today, Robbins is partners with John Hayes; they maintain approximately 250 racing homers kept in four lofts. Just last year they had a young bird blue Bar Sion hen that flew 750 miles, setting a new long distance record in Kentucky.
Picture
Charles Heitzman & E. L. Robbins, Jr. standing in front of Heitzman's main racing loft. NOTE,  Robbins returned back to this exact spot on October 11, 2015. He was emotionally upset with everything having totally disappeared. That same day he wrote an article, RETURN TO NOTHING and sent it to his editor friend GENE YOES; It is now to appear in THE RACING PIGEON DIGEST sometime in the furure.


Picture
Intense pigeon handler & Heitzman Sion Specialist, E. Lowell Robbins, Jr. aka "Robbie" or "No Sweat" while dining with wife, Chesteen. They have been married for 45 years; throughout the marriage Chesteen has always greatly supported  No Sweat in all of his many pursuits. Chesteen is a retired school principal. "Without her," states No Sweat, "I am nothing."  


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