Betti's Garden

I decided to split my parent's pages this time. After all, I now have more of my Mother's history and more photos to share. I wish I had more but my generation is the oldest left now. Aunt Evelyn died May 2003 and she was the only one left of my Mother's siblings. I have one older cousin but other than that, the rest are younger, I believe.

My maternal grandparents were gone about the time I was born, one before and one right after. Mother was the 5th of 6 children born to a postal worker and a housewife. The oldest died at 15 in a motorcycle accident 2 months before my Mother was born. But I didn't find out that he even existed til after Mother died on May 14th, 2002. I was always under the impression that there were only 5 children. Even my dad thought she only had 4 siblings. Everyone of the five who grew up got a college education.

Ola, the oldest, who is pictured at the left, was a teacher in Chattanooga, TN....she was the one my mom was visiting when I decided to show up. There were two surviving boys and the only one I remember was Uncle Joe. (His picture is on the right). He lived in Vero Beach, Florida and died of Alzheimer's in 1997. He was an engineer. Mother graduated from Florida State (I think and she would kill me if I am wrong). She married my Father in Aug of 1950. I came along in June 1954.

Aunt Evelyn was the baby of the family...she was a retired nurse and she and her husband, Don, lived in Prescott, AZ. Here is a picture of her with Uncle Don. Aunt Evelyn passed away the year after Mother did almost to the day. Uncle Don was also a retired Engineer. He passed away in September 2009. Seems this family loves to marry engineers if we are female or become engineers if we are male.

This is Mother's college graduation photo. She was born in March of 1926 and died on May 14th 2002 at the age of 76. This photo was taken in the early to mid 1940's, I think. It has occurred to me that I know very little of my Mother's side of the family. They weren't close and Mother has always been very close mouthed about lots of things.

I did find a picture of my grandmother, Eliza Elizabeth Pitts. And another picture of both my grandparents, my grandfather was Bascom English Robinson. I was named for both of my grandmothers. Elizabeth for my maternal grandmother.

Mother spent most of her life as an Administrative Assistant and/or an Executive Secretary for the Chamber of Commerce. During that time she was involved in putting together many events, one of them known as Freedom Weekend Aloft and the other was a look at Greenville for business people, which always occurred during the Master at Augusta.

Sometime during those latter years at the Chamber, she managed to meet Tony Randall, the actor of the Odd Couple fame. I didn't know it til after she died and I came across this photo.

My Mother was a Master Gardener. She didn't take the course at Clemson Extension until after she retired. My favorite memory of her was one Sunday sitting on the front porch of her house and listening to her fuss about the homework for the course. One comment she made had me doubled over with laughter. She sat there with a perfectly straight face and told me she never knew that corn had a sex life. She loved her yard and her favorite flowers were daffodils.

That was my Mother and I wish I had known her better. You can see the Robinson Family genealogy at RootsWeb My database is located at: The Taylor and Robinson Families