Bobbie Sue Robinson

August 1, 1926 - June 18, 2015

Bobbie Sue Demmon Robinson, a beautiful woman of faith, courage and love, native of Jennings, Louisiana, went home to her Heavenly Father on Thursday, June 18, 2015, at the age of 88. Just days earlier she had experienced both a hard fall and heart attack, and had been admitted to the hospital. After successful emergency stint procedures to protect her heart and leg, within a day she had suffered a series of severe strokes. She died peacefully with family at her side in the Scott & White Hospital in Round Rock, Texas.

Bobbie Sue moved from Houston, Texas to Round Rock in January 2015, to be close to her daughter Kathleen and husband Bob, along with nearby grandchildren and their families. She had been a resident of Houston for more than 60 years, raising her children there with the love of her life, husband Charlie Robinson (October 29, 1921 - January 7, 2009). Her ashes will be interred at West Point, New York along side Charlie’s, in the West Point Military Cemetery overlooking the Hudson River. Their grave stone is inscribed with Colossians 1: 28-29, which reads, “We proclaim Him, admonishing every man and teaching every man with all wisdom, so that we may present every man complete in Christ. For this purpose also I labor, striving according to His power, which mightily works within me.”

Charlie and Bobbie Sue raised a family of two children, Kathleen and Charles, resulting in five grandchildren (Amy Dees, Rob Dees, Allison Dees Barry, Graham Robinson, Laura Grace Robinson Baker) and ten great - grandchildren (Austen, Brennan, Isabel, Maya and Jandy Dees; Mitch and Kate Barry; Fleet, Cora and Wright Robinson). Kathleen is the wife of Major General (Ret) Bob Dees, devoted son-in-law and one of Charlie's early recruits to West Point. Charles is the husband of Nancy Ellsworth Robinson, dear daughter-in-law to both Charlie and Bobbie Sue. Bobbie Sue knew, loved and faithfully prayed for all her grandchildren and their spouses. Rob Dees is married to Jaclyn Porter, residents of Pflugerville, Texas. Allison Dees is married to Paul Barry, residents of Rochester, New York. Graham Robinson is married to Meredith Wright, residents of Austin, Texas. Laura Grace Robinson is married to Joshua Baker, residents of Big Timber, Montana.

Bobbie Sue Demmon was born at her home in Jennings, Louisiana on August 1, 1926, to Hubert Elmo and Jane Daniels Demmon. She was a blue eyed, curly locked only child who cherished her small town upbringing, and had many friends of all ages and backgrounds during the years leading up to WWII. Those early years were marked by the Great Depression and Bobbie Sue learned frugality, resourcefulness, how to help others and to share life at the feet of both her parents. As a child she played, danced, sang and she cooked with her mother. One of her sweetest memories was her father presenting her with a new bicycle on her birthday which had just been delivered on the train. She played make believe beneath mossy live oak trees in her front yard. She read many of the books in the Jennings library. She attended Southern Louisiana Institute (later USL) in Lafayette, Louisiana, graduating with a BS in Home Economics in 1946. She had a strong aptitude for biology and chemistry, and the gift of hospitailty. She found great joy in planning, cooking and serving meals with grace and elegance. A defining memory at SLI was the news that the Normandy Invasion had begun on June 6, 1944 (“D-Day”), as many students rushed to church to offer prayers for the Allied Forces while bells rang thoughout Lafayette. After graduation and a brief stint teaching high school, she fell in love with and married a young man from Jennings named Charles Lafayette Robinson, five years her senior. After graduating from SLI, Charlie attended West Point - graduating in 1946. Charlie and Bobbie Sue were married on June 19, 1947 at First Presbyterian Church in Jennings. Bobbie Sue lovingly followed Charlie all over the world as he pursued his promising career in geophysics. There were also extended times of being left at home with the children while Charlie was over seas in remote desert areas or in the wilds of Alaska on assignment. Bobbie Sue made curtains in every house they lived in prior to 1953 - representing 26 moves, including Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas and California. She would do the same while on assignment in Venezuela (1956) and Paris, France (1961). Making a temporary house a “home” and sharing hospitality with neighbors was one of Bobbie Sue’s greatest gifts, expressions of her creativity and personal fulfillment. One of her home kitchen remodels was featured in Southern Living in the early 1980’s. With no formal training, she visualized and designed functional settings that exuded warmth and charm. Her gift with color, knowledge of antiques, design details and related history was astounding. She had great raport with professional designers and craftsmen. She helped many friends with home and office decor projects. In the 1980’s Bobbie Sue and Charlie had an antique shop in the Rice University Village. They bought antiques from as far away as Vermont and New York, and they showed at Roundtop, Texas. Bobbie Sue had a reputation for knowledge, class and creativity in working with antiques and clients. She was energized by the business and connections with people. She made lasting friendships.

Bobbie Sue’s experience with Charlie and her children for a year in Paris during 1961 exposed her to a number of subjects she already greatly loved, including antiques, architecture and history. While living a hectic daily routine she absorbed countless interesting and often fascinating details that Paris, its people and surroundings had to offer to any expatriot. She would later reflect on how she had navigated many difficulties in establishing daily life in Paris with young children attending school, not least of which were the roads, roundabouts and traffic. She developed mental toughness and was extremely resourceful in creating yet another home. She made time to pursue friendships with neighbors and market vendors. Leaving Vaucresson, France to return to Houston, her dear French friends and neighbors called her amazing, struck by her originality in the home, and sincerity and warmth in all relationships. As life unfolded, Bobbie Sue would draw upon her rich experiences and memories in Paris and in all the many distant places she had made a home among strangers and new acquaintances until returning to Texas.

Bobbie Sue’s immediate ancestors were from New York, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Kentucky and Mississippi. On her father’s side, the Demmons settled in Cayuga County, New York in the early 1800’s, east of Rochester, later moving to Jamestown, NY, then the Warren area of Pennsylvania near the Allegheny River and expansive woodland forests. Her father was born in a logging camp in Warren, Pennsylvania in 1899. Her grandfather Joseph Montgomery Demmon (b. 1869) was a farrier, blacksmith and logger, known affectionately as “Daddy Joe”. Joseph’s grandfather, Lyman Demmon (b. 1800) was a lumberman and farmer. Her mother’s father, Robert S. Daniels (Irish-English, b. 1864), was a farmer, cotton grader and US Deputy Marshal from Olive Branch, Mississippi. Her grandmother, Lula Clyde Warren Daniels (b. North Carolina) died in child birth as a young mother. The Warrens trace their family history to Normandy, France. There were three Daniels sisters, Jane, Sue and Bobbie. Bobbie Sue is named for her mother’s two sisters. Lula Daniels had been active with other women in establishing a church in her Olive Branch community. Bobbie Sue’s mother Jane, attended grade school and church as a youth, picked cotton and drove her father’s cotton truck at the age of 13. Bobbie Sue fondly remembered traveling to New York with her father in 1938 (age 12) to visit Demmon relatives. Having never traveled away from the deep South, it was a grand road adventure which planted fertile seeds in her mind on the beauty and expanse of our nation and the life of generations preceding her. She had a very strong sense of history, the individual stories and the sacrifces made in forging the nation.

Bobbie Sue’s father Hubert was a rural mail carrier who had hoboed from Berea, Kentucky to Jennings in about 1917, at age 18. He was a recent graduate of Berea College. He settled in Jennings because of strong friendships and later moved his mother there from Kentucky. He was a WWI veteran who became sick at camp with the Spanish influenza, but survived the epedemic and would later serve on the draft board for WWII. He was active in the Boy Scouts of America. Later in life, he raised and lowered his American flag every day at his home in Jennings. Bobbie Sue’s mother Jane had a beauty salon for over 25 years. She was a volunteer in many community activies, the historical society, and was involved in the restoration of local historic Acadiana buildings. She was known for helping others and being an astute and hard working business woman. She was gifted in cooking and entertaining, as was Bobbie Sue’s father. Bobbie Sue’s parents both loved, kept and rode horses. They were connected to and loved outdoor activities, building lake camps and cabins in several places. They had cabins in Grand Lake, Colorado during the 1950-60’s, spending time on the lake boating and fishing. Toledo Bend, Texas was a favorite second home on the lake in the 1970’s.

Bobbie Sue was active in her faith and church community, both as a child and adult. In Jennings as a youth, she participated in worship, choir and Sunday School at First Presbyterian Church, where she would later marry. In Houston, Charlie and Bobbie Sue attended St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, led for decades by their dear friend and pastor Dr. M. Douglas Harper, Jr. Doug and Emmy Harper were lifelong cherished friends of Bobbie Sue and Charlie. Bobbie Sue served on many church committees, participated in the Women of the Church, helped with countless meals and events, served on the diaconate and on the session as an Elder. She was active for years in the Institute of Religion in the Houston Medical Center, providing hospitality and hosting services for conferences and workshops. She was a proponent of medical ethics from the Christian perspective, friends with scholars working and writing in the field, and well read on the subject. As a church layman, she studied healing prayer at Christian Healing Ministries, in Florida, a ministry of Francis and Judith MacNutt. Involved in lifelong service, Charlie and Bobbie Sue hosted families in need in their home, for a variety of reasons, some for treatment in the Texas Medical Center.

Bobbie Sue was engaging in her associations with all people. The heart was “the heart” of most any matter, and she usually saw a deeper aspect and meaning in the intersections and circumstances of her associations with others. Some relationships were difficult, requiring work and risk taking. When faced with such challenges, her often said motto was, “Risk all for love.”

Bobbie Sue was known for her continual striving to attain maturity in Christ, even to the end of her days. She read and studied the bible, knew and quoted scripture by heart - she was strengthened by the Word. She was involved in studies, reading books and devotionals about Christian living. She pondered and talked about practical theological questions for living and deeper questions on the meaning of life. She modeled how to be a faithful intercessor and prayed daily for numerous people. She ran the race and persevered courageously. Those who knew her through the years were well acquainted with her bravery and courage to be and to act, including in dangerous circumstances to protect others, in emotional and spiritual battles, and in sensitive situations requiring truth, wisdom and love. Her legacy is one of a sacrificial life well lived, a pure heart, the capacity to serve, love and forgive, a childlike faith, intelligence, wisdom, discernment, gifted creativity, a life of prayer, humility and laughter. Although she experienced worry and anxiety, sometimes overwhelming depression, she was known to seek out and cast her cares upon the Lord. She was not afraid to share her struggles. She was not ashamed of Christ and her story is a story of victorious living through Christ.

God, in His providential love and the never failing pursuit of his children, was Bobbie Sue’s all, and God was glorified in the living of her gracious life and in the final brief chapter of her suffering and death. To Him be all glory as we, family, and as those who knew Bobbie Sue celebrate her precious life in Christ. Bobbie Sue understood that her gifting was from God and she liberally showered these gifts on all she knew; the young and old, casual friends and associates, the desperate and needy, her cherished confidants and beloved family. This included gifts great and small, material and spiritual, emotional support, sacrificial gifts, some profound and some humorous, but always uplifting.

Bobbie Sue recently shared a quote that she felt expressed her journey in life: “Today I stop, I breathe deep and rest, with grateful tears I weep, because I have come so far”. Well done Bobbie Sue, good and faithful servant. You are greatly loved and missed. Your legacy of love is evident to all of us who knew you and experienced life with you. We are inspired by your life.