Dora Bessie Robison

Dora Drake Robison was born on July 16, 1921, in Brownsville, Tennessee to Sheriff Earnest Benton Drake and Marcia Gordon Drake. She was the last to pass away of the 10 children born to the Drake family. She grew up in Brownsville graduating from Haywood County high school. With the beginning of World War II, she began work at the Milam Army munitions plant and moved to Atlanta, Georgia in 1943. There she met a young Army Air Corp pilot from Texas, Lt. Louis Robison, and they married February 1944. After the war ended, they stayed in the Army Air Corps as it converted to the United States Air Force and lived in Texas, California, Guam, Florida, New Jersey, Alaska, Texas, and finally Florida before retiring and moving to Memphis, Tn. She became active in the Bartlett Garden Club, First Evangelical Church, and the Society for the Preservation of Tennessee Antiquities. She especially enjoyed narrating tours of the Fontaine House in Memphis. She also loved flower arranging, collecting Hummel figurines and Teddy Bears. She moved to Sugar Creek Senior Living center in Brownsville, Tn, close to the home she was born in. She was comforted by finding friends she had graduated from high school with. Many thanks to the staff of Sugar Creek for the love and comfort the showed over the years. She is survived by her son, Dr. Robert D. Robison (Jane), grandsons Edward and Andrew, and many nieces and nephews. Any memorial should be given in her name to St. Jude Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Memphis, Tn.