By Wiley Henry
MEMPHIS, TN – Thelma Robinson has had some good days and she’s had some bad days, according to her granddaughter, Joycelyn Simpson. But what do you expect from someone who recently celebrated her 105th birthday?
Due to COVID-19 restrictions, Robinson celebrated her birthday on April 10th via Zoom with her family: children, grandchildren, great
grandchildren, and great great grandchildren.
At her advanced age, everything may not be as clear as, let’s say, when she was 100 years old. Nevertheless, she is a trooper whose longevity no doubt is factored into her DNA.
“She is declining a little,” Simpson admitted, when asked to speak with the centenarian by phone. “She can speak, answer yes and no, but not hold long conversations.”
Again, it’s expected of someone her age – for she has seen a lot and has done a lot during her 10-plus decades of life. Now her words are few, although it doesn’t preclude her from having “a sense of humor…a little sarcasm,” Simpson said. “She didn’t bite her tongue about anything.”
What Robinson may not say, she may telegraph. But it didn’t take much for Simpson to learn how important it was for her grandmother to vote for Barack Obama for president in 2008 and again in 2012.
Frank Haynes, Simpson’s uncle, took her to the Colt Community Center in Colt, Ark. (between Forrest City and Wynn, Ark.) to ensure that Robinson wouldn’t miss the opportunity of a lifetime to elect America’s first Black president.
“She was very happy to vote. She wanted to vote,” Simpson said. “She had seen so much in her life and was proud to help put an African American in the White House.”
For Robinson’s 100th birthday, when she lived in Little Rock, “I was able to ask for a letter [from President Obama] while he was still in office. She liked that a lot…to get something from him.”
She also voted in 2016 for Hillary Rodham Clinton in Conway, Ark., Simpson said, hoping she could help Clinton break the glass ceiling for women in presidential politics. Her vote was her voice, and it resounded loud and clear whom she wanted for president.
“She always believed in voting. She raised her kids to believe in voting. She raised her kids to believe in education,” said Simpson, recalling that her grandmother was conferred a high school diploma at 60.
Robinson is originally from Marvell, Ark., in Phillips County, about a two-hour drive from Memphis. She has lived all over Arkansas in Monroe, St. Francis and Jefferson counties.
Simpson said her grandmother raised hogs and cattle on the family farm in Arkansas, made peach brandy, Muscadine wine, harvested peanuts, made sorghum molasses, and cultivated a garden.
She married Roy Bismarch Robinson in 1937 and was widowed after his death in 1984. Her daughter Gayle (who is deceased) and son-in-law Frank Haynes moved her into their home in Pine Bluff, Ark.
“Frank stopped being her son-in-law a long time ago,” Simpson said. “Now he’s her son.”
Robinson birthed eight children. All are deceased but two: Roy Luellen Morrow and Gloria Robinson-Simpson.
After a stint with the Haynes in rural Arkansas, Robinson moved to Memphis in 2016 to live with Simpson’s mother, Gloria Robinson-Simpson, and her daughter, Stephanie Simpson.
“It’s a blessing that my mother is able to take care of her at her age,” said Simpson, 53, noting that her 78-year-old mother had moved back to Memphis from Virginia to care for Robinson. She didn’t want her placed in a nursing home.
Family is important to her grandmother, Simpson said. “She likes being around family. She likes the attention [that she gets] from the family. She also loves to go to the beauty shop to get her hair washed and curled, and her nails done.”
Her independence is just as important as pampering herself. “She didn’t stop driving until she was 90,” Simpson said. “She didn’t want to give up her driver’s license. We all call her the matriarch of the family, but she also was the matriarch of the lead foot.”
Translation: When Robinson was in the driver’s seat, she loved to accelerate. Simpson remembers her grandmother’s red Chevrolet Impala with a white top moving rapidly to and fro.
What she did not give up was attending church services. But that would cease for now due to the pandemic. She had worshiped at several churches in Arkansas before joining A Worship Experience Christian Church and Outreach Ministry in Memphis.
When Robinson was in church, Simpson said she would sing church songs. Now she’s just enjoying the love and support of family.
