Maxine Eloise Robb, age 93, born in Pittsfield, Illinois on October 11, 1927, passed away February 17, 2021 at the UTMB Hospital in Angleton, Texas. She was the daughter of the late Melvin Andrew and Olive Mae Kenyon Hoskins.
She is preceded in death by her husband of 74 years, Dwight Clifford Robb, and by sisters Thelma Jean Hoskins Heritage and Edith Bernice Hoskins Engel.
She is survived by her son Michael Robb and his wife Sharon of Scribner, NE; daughter Patti Snyder and her husband Roland of Lake Jackson, TX; son James Robb of Woodbridge, VA; many grandchildren, great-grandchildren, nieces and nephews and one great-great-grandchild.
Eloise graduated from Davenport (IA) High School in January, 1946 and always joked that she graduated one day and got married the next. In her early married years, the girl from the city adapted to life on an Iowa farm, from learning how to plant, and can, a garden to finding out that rabbits really do not lay eggs.
Always creative, she was active in the Farm Bureau and Presbyterian women's groups, teaching various crafts and techniques. Upon learning that the Donahue, Iowa, Centennial Committee was having trouble getting sets painted for the Music Man, she volunteered. With the help of the town's children, she designed and painted all of the sets.
In 1963, Eloise and Dwight moved the family to Davenport, Iowa, where she joined the Beaux Arts League and spent many happy hours creating oil paintings. She also worked as a bookkeeper for J C Penny and Geifman's Foods.
Just before moving to Cherokee Village, Arkansas, in 1978, she achieved a long held desire; she learned to crochet! Long frustrated by her left handedness, she took to crochet with a vengeance, making over 30 "adult blankies" in the first year.
Eloise continued to paint, knit and crochet until 1999 when she and Dwight moved to Lake Jackson, Texas. That was where she discovered jewelry making. As the years passed, arthritis in her hands limited her ability to create handicrafts, but she was able to keep on with the jewelry making almost until the end.
