Serving Barnwell County and it's neighbors since 1852
For over 90 years, Allendale’s Maggie Lee Allen Robinson has lived on Mill Street, a quiet neighborhood road that travels from the south to the north of Allendale, interrupted only by the town’s east-to-west train tracks. It was on this street where her brothers and husband left to serve in the Korean War and World War II, and where Maggie Robinson now looks back on a long life in Allendale.
On March 27, Maggie Lee Allen Robinson, was recognized by the Allendale County Council for “Outstanding service and commitment to her Family, Church, Community, County and State.” After turning 101 on April 5, Maggie Robinson has witnessed America change through the decades: The Great Depression. World War II. The Civil Rights movement and the fall of Jim Crowe. The Vietnam War. The Reagan 80’s. The September 11th attacks. The election of the first Black president.
Maggie has also witnessed Allendale change through the years. When she was a child, fewer cars were on the road and cordial neighbors shared food grown from their gardens. When Allendale’s section of Route 301 was rerouted to the east in the 1980’s, Maggie’s friends who worked in local motels that housed tired truckers and vacationers on their way to Florida had their hours cut.
There was a time when Maggie was the young one in the neighborhood. Since then, as the community has changed, Maggie has become the eldest of the neighborhood, and her neighbors check in on her occasionally.
“She’s the oldest one in the community,” said Maggie’s daughter Vermelale Davis. “She still gets around and be out in the yard raking up the leaves. If anyone stops by, they have a conversation. If they don’t see her, they go ‘where’s Ms. Maggie?’”
To this day, Maggie lives in the house she built while her father was serving in WWII.
“When he was in service, she pretty much built this house,” said Bill Robinson, Maggie’s son and current Allendale County Council member (who recused himself from voting on the ordinance to recognize his mother). “When he came back, she had a house built. This is where all six of [my siblings] grew up.”
Maggie had six children including Robinson and served many roles within the community, including a stint working at the school cafeteria.
She also had a close relationship with her mother, Ora Graham Allen (nicknamed Mumpsie by the family) who died in 1997 at 92. Maggie was close with Mumpsie, and remembers Mumpsie taking her to church as a child. Out on the lawn, Maggie has a garden where her Mumpsie’s old house used to be. Several years ago, her family replaced the house with the garden.
“They did a lot of canning back then during the summers,” Davis said. “She used to can tomatoes and okras and stuff like that.”
These days, Robinson lives alone and has habits she sticks to, like oatmeal for breakfast and chicken, cabbage and potatoes for dinner.
But on this sunny April afternoon, Maggie Robinson is looking out at the garden from her maroon recliner, thinking about her mother.
“I be thinking about all the time she’s been gone,” Maggie said. “God done called her home. We used to have a nice time. I think about momma now.”
Elijah de Castro is a Report for America corps member who writes about rural communities like Allendale and Barnwell counties for The People-Sentinel. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep Elijah writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today.
