Sieglinde Emma Robinson

We are here today to celebrate a remarkable woman whose life was the stuff of novels. In the course of her life she had so many challenges and adventures, but her grit and determination carried her through. She truly was the rock of her family.

Sieglinde Emma (Kober) Robinson was born December 30, 1929 to a middle-class family in the town of Rossbach. It was situated in the Sudetenland, a part of what is now Czechoslovakia. She and her family survived WWII and expulsion from their home by the Communist Czechs after the war. In fact, none of the sons might be here today because she almost didn’t survive. The townspeople knew that the Czechs were coming. They began to smuggle small valuables through the forest across the border into Germany. Usually teens would go in small groups at night, eluding the Czech border guards who had guns! On the night in question, Siggy tumbled down the cellar steps and sprained her ankle and could not go. The next morning a neighbor called to ask “Did Siggy make it home last night?” Her mother explained that she didn’t go. No one in the group that went that night returned or was ever found! When the Communist Czechs came to expel the family, Siggy was separated from them, but they were reunited outside of Munich where they made their new home.

She met her future husband, Gus, when he was part of the American Occupation forces in Germany. They first met when she stopped to eat at a hotel and was asked by the waiter to translate for some American soldiers who wanted to order food. He was quite smitten with her and kept coming back to see her. They were married very shortly after that in 1947.

She and her first son came to the US by way of the Berlin Airlift in 1948. Her other 3 sons were born in San Antonio, Texas. Siege was devoted to her “boys” and while stationed in England, France and the US she was a Cub Scout den mother, ran the Base teen club and cheered them on in their sports.

Gus and Siggy retired in Austin, Texas in 1967. Always busy, Siggy turned her energy to cooking for family and friends, and taking on community issues. She joined the Eastern Star in the early 1950s, helped establish the Bluff Springs Extension Homemakers, and became a Precinct Judge. She was never afraid to tackle any community issue or speak her mind. She was always persuasive and used that skill to “demo” food products at the Base Commissary and HEB. She was in high demand because companies knew that she would sell out the product inventory for that day. When her sons married and had children, she had a whole new group to cook and care for, which she loved.

Gus passed away in 1999 so her world became her boys and their families who took very good care of her. She also gained a wide circle of friends in a German Club. After Gus died, she sold the house and lived with two of her sons before moving to Brookdale in San Marcos. The staff there loved her and we have been told that she was a big part of Brookdale when she lived there.