1917 – 2000*

Loftis J. Sheffield became an FBI agent for the good he could do. He wanted to stop crime and right wrongs, but he was known more as a kind and caring man than as an “enforcer.” During his 38 years with the Bureau, and thereafter, he sought to see the good and promise in people, including those he arrested.

Born and raised in the small town of Kaysville, Utah, Loftis met and fell in love with an Oakley, Idaho girl, the former Blanche Whiteley, while both were working in Washington, D.C.  They later married and moved immediately to Little Rock, Arkansas, where Loftis began his career as an FBI agent. Together they had eight children who were born in three of the five cities to which Loftis was transferred over the years.

Loftis’ children saw him live by what he called the Best Advice Ever Received:

“Live each day for the good you can do.”

Get a glimpse of Loftis and Blanche Sheffield through a set of Saturday errands in the 1960s – The Basketball Standard and the Filing Cabinet.

During at least 40 years of his life, Loftis filled a file cabinet with collected thoughts and articles about how we can live better and what brings light to life. He often noted his thoughts and those of others on 4×6 white papers, aggregating in the thousands. He grouped the notes and other collected materials in files labeled with particular virtues or roles, such as “love,” “honesty,” and “fathers.”

alias Fred Albertson

A small group of Loftis Sheffield’s notes on 4×6 note papers.

Loftis would have happily shared his collection for the good it might do, but he wouldn’t have sought the spotlight. On some of his 4×6 notes, he attributed the thoughts to a man his children did not know, “Fred Albertson.”  After Loftis’ passing, his children realized that the thoughts attributed to this man were actually Loftis’ own, because Loftis was the son of Fred Albert Sheffield – Fred Albert’s son.

* Loftis Sheffield passed away in February, 2000, but he lives on here as a different type of ‘ghost writer.’

See posts taken from Dad’s files.

Loftis Sheffield gardening in Oakley, Idaho around the childhood home (built in 1901) of the former Blanche Whiteley, his spouse and the mother of eight. An interested grandson drops by and engages with his grandpa.