Robert W. Scales

Robert Winston Scales was born to Henry Preston and Willie Burkeen Scales on June 22, 1926.^{[citation needed]} The couple owned and managed the Scales & Son Funeral Home; founded by Preston Scales in 1916, the business was the first black-owned funeral home in Murfreesboro and in Rutherford County, Tennessee.^[1][2] Robert Scales graduated from Holloway High School, in Murfreesboro.^{[when?][citation needed]}

Scales enrolled at Tennessee State University, received his bachelor's degree from that institution,^{[clarification needed][when?][3][4]} and went on to work in the family business, Scales & Son Funeral Home, eventually owning and running the business.^{[citation needed]} In addition to managing the small business, Scales went on to serve as the first African-American elected to the Murfreesboro City Council (serving 21 years),^[when?] and as the first African-American Vice-Mayor of the city (serving 8 of those years).^{[when?][3][4]}

In 1949, Scales married his wife Mary, a teacher who would become the first black faculty member at Middle Tennessee State University,^[5] and later the first African-American woman elected to the City School Board and City Council in Murfreesboro.^[6][7][8]

Following his death on October 30, 2000, Robert Winston "Tee-Niny" Scales was honored by a joint resolution of 102nd Session of the houses of the Tennessee legislature.^[3][4] His daughter, Madelyn Scales Harris, was elected to the Murfreesboro City Council in 2010.^[9]