Martha Robinson blows out the candles on her 100th birthday cake, held by Angie Tom. Surrounding Martha are four of her children. Pictured from left are Marta Hopkins; and Dennis, Dan and Doug Robinson. Photo by David Slone, Times-Union.

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Martha Robinson celebrated her 100th birthday Wednesday, Aug. 17, with her favorite theme – Hawaii.

As her guests filed into Robinson Construction – the business in Warsaw she and her husband Elburn “Gay” Robinson started almost 70 years ago – the decorations made it obvious what the theme was. Some guests even wore tropical shirts or leis, and the cake had palm trees and flowers in icing on it.

More importantly, Martha was overjoyed to have her guests and family there to help her mark her centennial.

“It feels wonderful to have all my friends come. Of course, I love Hawaii,” she said. “I do remember we always celebrate Hawaii along with my birthday. I made 30 trips to Hawaii.”

She said all of them were great, but some of those trips were better than others.

“I enjoyed them all. But I didn’t do a lot of swimming in the ocean. I never did when we were younger. We just enjoyed the view more and walked and toured the different islands,” she said.

Martha thought her longest stay in Hawaii might have been six months.

“Just the atmosphere. The beauty of it,” she said of what she likes about Hawaii. “A lot of my relatives like to come to Hawaii to visit. They didn’t come in droves. We took them two and three and four at a time. We didn’t have great big groups ever. We had a lot of company.”

Her last trip to Hawaii was 10 to 11 years ago.

Martha was born Aug. 17, 1922, in a farm house south of Wabash. Her family were farmers, teachers “and other things,” she recalled in an interview two years ago. She said aunts, uncles, nieces and nephews were all teachers.

She met her future husband at a high school basketball game. They were married Aug. 22, 1943.

Robinson Construction began in 1956 with Gay as the sole proprietor. Located at 445 E. 200N, Warsaw, Robinson Construction was incorporated in 1979. Gay died at 89 on May 24, 2010, and Martha’s last trip to Hawaii was sometime after that.

Four of Martha’s children spoke very fondly of their mother.

Doug Robinson, the third oldest child and second oldest son, said Martha “is just a sweet person. Very loveable. Very strong-headed. Willful type person. I think that’s what is keeping her around here.”

He said she’s doing “quite well” for turning 100. “We’re all happy about that.”

Two years ago, Martha was still driving, but Doug said she’s OK with not doing that now.

Asked what he thought it was like for her to raise five children, Doug said, “Well, let’s just put it this way: She said, ‘One child takes up all your time. Five takes up all your time.’ So we had to share.”

Marta Hopkins, the second oldest child, said her mother was unique.

“When we get parents, we hit the parent lottery. We were very lucky. Our parents were outstanding, both of them. And they were always there for us, no matter what. They had rules and you had to follow them, which is good, but never mean. We got spanked if we needed it, but it was not for no reason. They were great parents. They made sure we had healthy food all the time. You couldn’t get any better than we had,” Marta said.

While they lost Dad, she said they still have Mom and they are so glad.

Marta said Martha was an “excellent” role model as a mother.

“She always said, ‘If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.’ And she is better than me, though. She is excellent,” Marta said. “She sewed, she cooked, she taught me to cook. She was a 4-H leader. She was homeworking, but she took care of the book working for (Robinson Construction).”

The youngest of the children is Dennis Robinson. He said, growing up, his mother was “awesome, really. She did everything. Great! Super!”

Describing his mother, Dan Robinson said, “Well, honestly, she was great but as kids you think your mom and dad are really strict. And then as I went off to college, I realized they weren’t really that strict. But, I thought they were. They were really a great mom and dad, I couldn’t ask for better.”

He said they were ideal parents.

“But, if we did something she didn’t like, Mom and Dad had this leather razor strap that the old barbers used to use, and they would use it. And if Mom used it, Dad used it again when he got home. We got it double, so we didn’t make Mom mad,” Dan recalled.

He said Martha is still in pretty good health for her age.

“Jake Furbee asked me a couple weeks ago, he said, ‘Ask your mom what the most amazing invention in her lifetime was, in her opinion.’ So I did ask her that,” Dan said.

Her answer was indoor plumbing.

“Think about it. We take it for granted. The house she grew up in didn’t have indoor plumbing at all,” Dan stated.