Annie Robbins Wilson

Annie Robbins was born on March 17, 1908, in the small community of Fagan in Menifee County, Kentucky. She was the daughter of John Morgan Robbins and Izane Ellen (Hatton) Robbins and grew up in a close-knit household with her two sisters, Hazel and Emma. Her childhood was shaped by the rhythms of rural life—farm work, church, and the steady presence of family in the Kentucky hills. As a girl, Annie learned the homemaking skills that would stay with her throughout her life. Sewing, mending, and quilting were not hobbies but necessities, and like many young women of her generation, she learned to turn scraps of fabric into useful and beautiful household items.

On November 29, 1935, Annie married Ollie Esko Wilson in Mount Sterling, Montgomery County, Kentucky. Soon after their marriage, the young couple followed work opportunities north, beginning a period of travel that took them far from Annie’s childhood home. By 1936, they were living in Davenport, Iowa, and over the next several years they made their home in the Quad Cities area of Iowa and Illinois. During this time, Annie became a mother and built her household while adapting to new communities and surroundings.

Family records show that Annie and Ollie’s first son was born in Comanche, Iowa. A second son was later born back in Kentucky, in Fagan, reflecting the family’s return south. The couple also experienced heartbreak with the loss of a daughter who was born and died in the Rock Island–Moline, Illinois area. Through these moves, joys, and sorrows, Annie carried on the quiet, steady work of caring for her home and children.

By the late 1950s, Annie and Ollie had returned to Kentucky. Ollie passed away on May 31, 1957, leaving Annie a widow. A photograph taken at his funeral captures her during that difficult time, dressed in mourning, standing with the dignity and strength that marked her life.

In her later years, Annie lived in Kokomo, Indiana, where she remained close to family. She was remembered as a tiny, reserved woman who rarely smiled but was always neatly dressed. Family members recall her wearing knee-high hosiery held up with garters, sensible black heeled shoes, a hair net, and distinctive cat-eye glasses. These details, small as they seem, painted a picture of a woman from an earlier era who carried her habits and modest style with her all her life.

Annie never lost the skills she learned as a girl. One cherished family heirloom is a handmade yo-yo quilt created by Annie and her sister Hazel (Robbins) Rogers. Family tradition says their mother, Izane, may also have helped. Made from dozens of small gathered circles of fabric, yo-yo quilts were especially popular during the 1930s and 1940s and were often sewn from saved scraps. The quilt stands as a lasting reminder of the time these women spent together, stitching pieces of worn cloth into something warm and beautiful.

Another keepsake is Annie’s sewing box, still holding thread, needles, and sewing notions. It reflects the quiet, everyday work she did for decades—mending, sewing, and caring for her family in practical ways that rarely made it into written records but shaped daily life just the same.

Annie (Robbins) Wilson passed away on November 16, 1984, in Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana, just one day before what would have been her 76th birthday. She was laid to rest at Sunset Memory Garden Cemetery in Kokomo. Though she left few written words behind, her life is remembered in photographs, in heirlooms stitched by hand, and in the memories of those who knew her.

She was a daughter of the Robbins family of Menifee County and the sister of Hazel and Emma. Annie was one of the many women whose steady hands and quiet strength helped hold a family together across generations, across miles, and across time.