Martha June Robinson, beloved mother, grandmother and great-grandmother, died peacefully at her home in Longmont, Colorado, on April 9, 2019, surrounded by her family. She was 91 years old. She was born in Danville, Virginia, on July 16, 1927, to the late Clifton Hedley and Mattie Virginia Dodson. June, as she preferred to be called, remained attached to her roots and never lost the mild, sweet southern accent that charmed everyone she met. If she ever called you “darlin,’” you were comforted-- and never forgot her.
June’s father Clifton worked as a buyer for R. J. Reynolds Tobacco, traveling through the south as the crops came in and selecting a variety of tobacco grades for the company. South Boston in southern Virginia was the heart of tobacco country, but the red soil also produced fantastic vegetables. Clifton kept a large garden which sustained the family year-round with preserved vegetables. These were always eaten with fried cornbread--made exclusively with buttermilk—on the side. June’s childhood favorites were the tiny southern lima beans called butter beans, stewed tomatoes, and a variety of white sweet corn called “Country Gentleman.”
Before her marriage, June’s mother Mattie had been a nurse at Garfield Memorial Hospital in Washington D.C., caring for victims of the Spanish flu during World War I. She and her sister, beloved Aunt Theo (or “Doshie,” for Theodosia), were fine seamstresses and made most of June’s beautiful clothes. June may be seen wearing one such hand-made white polka-dot dress in one of the attached photographs.
June and her brother Hedley attended school in South Boston, Virginia. She graduated early at 16 from C. H. Friend High School and attended the University of Virginia, Charlottesville, in the cadet nursing program. After graduation she worked as a registered nurse in South Boston before relocating to Denver, Colorado, and Denver General Hospital, where she met an intern named Benjamin Earl Robinson, formerly of Longmont. Ben later completed a medical residency in ophthalmology in Chicago.
The couple was married on November 8, 1952, in Cambridge, England, where Dr. Robinson was stationed as part of a medical group. During his recovery from a serious illness, Ben and June traveled to the continent and spent a memorable time at the beach in Allasio on the Italian Riviera, where June discovered she was pregnant. She learned to love “Orangina,” the French sparkling orange drink, which was the only beverage she could keep down during spells of morning sickness. The couple traveled through a Europe still scarred by the world war.
They eventually settled in Urbana, Illinois. An air force captain, Dr. Robinson had been assigned to Chanute Air Force Base in Rantoul, Illinois, and during that period, joined the eye department of the Carle Clinic in nearby Urbana as an ophthalmologist. His practice grew with the clinic, and he worked at Carle for 28 years. As the family grew, they occupied three different homes on G.H. Baker Drive in north Urbana in a beautiful small subdivision called Timber Hills by the Urbana Country Club.
The couple raised five children in Urbana: Thomas Dalton, Mary McMillan, Neal Vaden, Barbara Ellen, and Robert Dugald. These were happy years and prosperous years. Whatever her children were involved in interested their mother, from tennis to swimming to musical performances to fishing, ice skating and games of cards. Throughout their childhood, June read to her children and raised a family of avid readers. Her kids inherited her talent for expression and humor. Neal was especially gifted in this way, and kept the family laughing. His remarkable musical talents also made the family home a place of music. Ben was a guitar player with a wonderful tenor voice. He invited his musical friends to join in, and folk songs from that era are still special favorites of the family. June always regretted that she could not carry a tune, but she loved the music as much as anyone.
Among the neighborhood children, June was famous for her homemade bread and her insistence on rolling up her daughters’ hair in curlers on Saturday night in preparation for church on Sunday. A small cottage on a chain of lakes called “The Pollywogs” offered fishing in summer and winter, and a chance to explore the woods. The family home in Timber Hills had an extra lot, which was a wonderful playground for children. There was also a large finished basement where kids could romp and play ping pong during the cold winter months. The hill behind the house made for great sledding in an otherwise flat country. June welcomed all children to her home.
The family took vacations in these years to Virginia to visit their southern kin, to Colorado to visit Ben’s mother Mary, to Yellowstone National Park where they camped and fished, and to Florida, which became an increasingly attractive destination to Ben and Tom, who ultimately started a charter fishing business in Naples which continues to this day. Ben loved deep sea fishing with Tom, but not every member of the family had their sea legs, including June, who preferred walking on beaches and enjoying the fresh catch of the day.
June was a woman of strong faith, an ardent Christian, and she was an example of courage to her family as she nursed Ben through his final illness in 1981. Her years as a member of the First Baptist Church in Urbana, as well as her fellowship with like-minded Christians in Illinois and Colorado, remained at the center of her life. She traveled to eastern Europe on behalf of her fellowship and made friends across the globe in support of their missions.
After Ben Robinson’s death, June moved to Longmont to occupy the Robinson family home, where she continued to make many friends and to host family get-togethers for her children. June was an active person. She walked whenever she could and loved the old neighborhoods of Longmont with their beautiful trees and shady parks. She attended exercise classes at the senior center on a regular basis where she made a whole new set of friends. She loved the mountains and hiking and picnicking in Rocky Mountain National Park. She overcame her fear of water and rode an inner tube down the St. Vrain River one memorable afternoon. In 1992 she hiked the southern-most section of the Colorado Trail, putting in more than one twenty-mile day, and surprising herself.
She also loved visiting her children across the country and the globe. She traveled around China with her daughter, Barbara, a true adventure under primitive conditions that produced many great stories. June was a wonderful storyteller and kept her audience in stitches with her description of a night-time invasion of their hotel room by—rats! She returned several times in style to Hong Kong in the years when Barbara became established in the film industry, even attending the Oscars with Barbara when a Chinese film that she had produced was nominated for ten Academy Awards. She made many friends in Hong Kong, Taiwan and China and adopted Barbara’s pet Boxers as her own.
June also loved returning to the South where her son Bob, a neurosurgeon in Birmingham, and his wife Leslie raised their family. Southern specialties, like Brunswick Stew and spoon bread, will forever delight her children. She spent happy times in Cody, Wyoming, where her daughter Mary works as the director of a research library in the Buffalo Bill Center of the West. Mary and her husband Richard kept horses and a white mule that June called “girlie,” her special favorite. Richard’s career as a backcountry ranger for the National Park Service created many opportunities to see remote parts of Yellowstone and its amazing wildlife.
June also made regular trips to Urbana to reconnect with her son, Neal, in the music profession, and with old friends in her fellowship and from the Baptist church. Bob went to college in Colorado and, like his father, attended medical school in Denver. June was proud of all her children and welcomed her grandchildren: Halie, Benjamin, Dylan, McClain and Macey. In recent years, she became a proud great-grandmother to Halie’s girls, Eleanor and Evelyn, who live on a farm in Iowa.
June is survived by her five children: Thomas of Naples, Florida; Mary (Richard) of Cody, Wyoming; Neal of Longmont; Barbara of Los Angeles; and Robert (Leslie) of Birmingham; her niece Lucy (Virgil), nephew Cliff, and several great-nieces and nephews in her southern family. In addition to her parents, June was preceded in death by her brother, Hedley, of Winston-Salem, North Carolina, his wife Alice, and two of their children, Paul and Martha.
The family plans a private service for June later in the year in Columbiana, Alabama, where the Robinson family members are buried. Memorial contributions may be made to Halcyon Hospice & Palliative Care (P.O. Box 177, Mead, CO 80542-0177), to the Wounded Warrior Project or to the Paralyzed Veterans of America.
Please continue scrolling down the page past the remembrances to view a few special pictures.
Partager l'avis de décès
v.1.9.6