Martha Ann Robb

By Jim Robb

My mother, Martha Robb, a retired civic leader of her beloved Marshall, Texas, died peacefully at her assisted living home early Sunday morning.

Born in DeKalb, Texas, 10 years to the hour after the signing of the Armistice that ended World War I, Mother suffered early tragedy when her mother, Lucille, died of kidney disease just short of Mother's third birthday in 1931. Her father, Aubrey Hegler, facing a disappearing East Texas job market, was forced to seek work in Detroit, Michigan. Mother was placed with a married Aunt, Ida Winnie Clark, and her husband, James Clark, to raise as their own.

Mom accepted Jesus as her Savior as a young girl and never deviated from that course. She was at church every time the doors were open - often she would be the only person her age at the Wednesday Prayer service.

After completing high school during World War II, Mother entered Lon Morris Methodist Junior College in the fall of 1946. There she met an earnest young Methodist ministerial student named Edmund Whetstone Robb, Jr., recently discharged from the U.S. Navy after war service. They married on May 25, 1947, when she was 18 years of age and weighed only 91 pounds!

Having children stopped her college career as a straight A student. Extremely intelligent, Mother applied her drive to aiding in the Methodist ministry work with my dad, and later by editing his sermons and other writings for publication, and by working as his secretary once the children were in school.

In the mid-20th Century, Methodist ministers were moved frequently from church to church. Dad and Mother served Texas Methodist churches in Scottsville, Abilene, Amarillo, Hamlin, Midland and Lubbock.

After all of their children were at college, Dad and Mother returned to live in his hometown of Marshall, which Mother adopted as her own.

She became very involved in civic affairs in Marshall. In 1993, Mother won the first of two elections to fill a seat on Marshall's City Commission. The 1990s was something of a golden age for civic leadership in Marshall. Under the leadership of dynamic Mayor Audrey Kariel, Mother and the Commission turned the city into a cultural center by founding an art museum, instituting the Christmas-season Festival of Lights, and rehabbing the historic Texas & Pacific Railroad Depot, restoring it to active use.

In 1998, Mother was elected Chairman of the East Texas Council of Governments, which coordinates public policy for 14 East Texas counties. Perhaps her most significant achievement was leading the fundraising effort to refurbish the important Harrison County Historical Museum, and then to create a museum military history annex, documenting Marshall's involvement in multiple American wars. She led these efforts for 11 years.

After Dad died in 2004, Mother continued to live in Marshall, teaching Sunday School at the First United Methodist Church, remaining active in the Historical Museum, as well as many other civic institutions. As she entered her mid-eighties, Mother's health began to deteriorate, and she moved to assisted living in The Woodlands to be near children and grandchildren.

In the last few years, she lost many physical abilities, becoming legally blind, unable to walk, and finally, able to speak only in whispers. But throughout these trials, her firm and confident faith in God remained vibrant. Her mind remained very sharp to the end of her days. During her last years, now unable to read, she listened to audible books such as War and Peace, Pride and Prejudice, Unbroken, The Devil In the White City, A History of the English Speaking Peoples, and scores of other challenging volumes.

Mother possessed a remarkable facility for recalling numbers and dates, surprising her listeners with facts such as the exact population of the Russian Federation, and seemingly having committed to memory the casualty tables for all the belligerent powers in World War I.

Even more notable was her cheerful countenance in every adversity, her remarkable generosity, and the love she had for her city, her nation, her children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews.

She is survived by her children Edmund, Sarah, and Jim. Two children, Julia and Laurie, preceded her in death. She was also extremely close to her great nephew and niece, Dana Strength and Adeline Strength. Additionally, she has nine grandchildren and 12 great-grandchildren, and many nieces, nephews, and great-nieces and nephews.

The funeral service for Mother will be held at The Woodlands Methodist Church on Wednesday, December 4, at 11 a.m. in Robb Chapel. Burial will be at 1pm on Thursday, December 5, at Almagora Cemetery in Marshall, Texas