Lura Mae Swift Robinson
July 14, 2024
For many years, Rett has sung the Irish lullaby, “Tura-lura-lura” to our children and now to our granddaughters. She says that she thinks about her mother, Lura, every time she sings it. Simon sings it to his daughters, and Joy, Eva, and Asa are lulled by the sweet sounds of their Dad’s and Gran’s voices. Today we honor the memory of Lura Mae Swift Robinson.
When Lura Mae Swift was born on 18 July 1926, in Montgomery County, Tennessee, her father, Walter Bolden Swift, was 37 and her mother, Dorothy Dotson Scott, was 36. Twenty years later, Lura married Leonard Ike Robinson (ten years her senior) on 11 May 1946, in Clarksville, Tennessee, and during the following nine years, they had three daughters: Connie, Paula, and Loretta. I married Loretta in 1976 and after living in Idaho for a couple of years, she and I moved back to Clarksville, Tennessee where we had the opportunity to visit Lura and Robbie on a weekly basis. We even lived with them for a short period while we were waiting for our new house to be built.
As we pay tribute to Lura, perhaps it is beneficial to divide her life into three periods: Early Life, Parenthood, and Grandparenthood.
Early Life
Lura Mae was born into a poor, hard-working family of ten located in the small, rural community of Louise, south of Clarksville. Her dad, Walter, was a sharecropper and her mother, Dorothy “Dolly”, while birthing and raising eight children, worked hard: cooking, milking the cow, gardening, and keeping house. Lura’s seven siblings (four brothers and three sisters) were expected to help run the property and household from an early age. Life was tough, and at the early age of 4 tragedy struck Lura. While watching her older brother George chop wood, the axe head dislodged from the handle and hit Lura’s right eye. Unfortunately, she lost that eye, thus leaving her with prosthesis.
The following excerpt written by Lura for a book entitled, Cotton Britches and Sack Dresses, compiled by Peggy Hunter, describes a bit of the hardship she encountered as a young girl.
Growing Pains
My older sister (Nannie Yates) got married and moved away when I was ten years old. I became the oldest girl at home. With that status came the privilege of doing the ironing for the family.
We lived in the Louise Community and electricity had not yet come to that area. So that meant ironing was done with flat irons heated on a wood burning stove in the kitchen or a fire built outside near the woodpile. It was a real challenge to get the garment ironed while the iron was still hot. You always kept several getting hot all the time. When one cooled down, then you would change it for a hot one.
If you have never ironed stiffly starched shirts and pants for three brothers and a dad, you cannot understand what a hard job this can be. Your legs literally ache at night-and I will never believe that was growing pains. I bless the day “perma-press” came into our life.
Parenthood
Robbie and Lura with their third daughter, Loretta
As stated earlier, Lura and Robbie were married on May 11, 1946 and their first daughter, Connie, was born on September 22, 1949. Paula was born 14 months later. For several years, Lura assisted Robbie at a small grocery store at the corner of Crossland and Cumberland Drive in Clarksville. Through a desire to better herself, Lura studied to be a licensed nurse, and in 1963 she became an LPN. As a young man, Robbie had joined the Merchant Marines and had traveled the world on cargo ships. Understanding that lifestyle, and the amount of money that could be accrued, Robbie joined the Military Sea Transportation Service in 1962, leaving Lura with the sole responsibility for three daughters for the next six years. In 1972, Lura enrolled into the RN program at Austin Peay State University and in 1974 became a registered nurse. She was employed at Memorial Hospital and Fort Campbell Military Hospital from which she retired at age 62.
Grandparenthood
Lura became a first-time grandmother in 1970 at age 44 with the birth of a grandson, Kiley Murphy. She and Robbie were blessed with seven grandchildren (Kiley, Shelley, Dustin, Grace, Emily, Simon, and Caroline). It was as a grandmother (Mammaw) to our children (Simon and Caroline) that our fondest memories of Lura were formed.
Lura holding her sixth grandchild, Simon Robinson Woliver
In 1985, Lura and Robbie bought a house on three acres in rural Tennessee in a community named Cunningham, adjacent to property owned by Lura’s sister, Joyce. I remember Lura saying that she found her bliss during these years on Bumpus Road. Simon and Caroline have fond memories of Mammaw’s delicious country suppers, especially boiled sweet corn, fried okra, and iron skillet cornbread.
Photo of the backyard in Cunningham with Simon holding onions grown from Lura's garden
Along with those special suppers, I have humorous recollections of Lura's Southern sayings. Here is a sampling: “Make yourself useful as well as ornamental”; “two head’s are better than one, even if one is a sheep’s head”; and when referring to house chores, “I’ll give it a lick and a promise”.
Lura with her seventh grandchild, Caroline Elizabeth Robinson Woliver, and Robbie
In 2005, Lura and Robbie left their beloved Cunningham and moved to Columbus, Ohio to be near Loretta and me. Robbie was showing some signs of dementia and Lura was anticipating a need for assistance for herself and him. Understanding their needs, we helped find a senior community for them, but not expecting Lura's health to decline as quickly as it did.
Lura died on 6 April 2007, in Columbus at the age of 80, and her body was returned to Clarksville, Tennessee for burial in Greenwood Cemetery. Lura left us with a legacy of hard work, care for others, and an example of how to overcome adversity. May "Tura-lura-lura" lull her to an Eternal Peace.
CPW
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