Robinson died Jan. 6. She was 101.
Robinson, who had lived at Ohio Living Mount Pleasant in Monroe for 19 years, took a neighbor some cookies and while walking to the mailbox, accidentally fell and broke her elbow and hip. She never fully recovered from surgery, her son said.
An avid horse rider as a child, Robinson rode a horse last spring and in August went on a cruise to the Bahamas with her daughter, Janet Moland.
“What a life she lived,” her son said.
She turned 100 on May 17, 2020 during COVID-19 and there was a birthday parade at Mount Pleasant.
She graduated from Withrow High School in Cincinnati and Ohio Wesleyan University where she was a member of Phi Beta Kappa and Kappa Kappa Gamma. She married William K. Robinson in 1941 and they were married for 55 years. They moved to Middletown in 1954.
From 1960-63, she served as the first woman stock broker in southwest Ohio when she worked for Greene & Ladd inside the Manchester Inn. Then, from 1966-1972, she managed the Miami-Middletown University bookstore.
Robinson also planned the post-meeting trips for the Urban Land Institute and continued for many years as a travel planner and escort with family and friends throughout much of the world, her son said.
She also volunteered with Hospice of Middletown and at Mount Pleasant.
Lenny Robinson, 67, said back in the 1960s, his mother’s friends, during private conversations, talked about how fortunate she was her husband let her work outside the home.
“It was a man’s world,” said her son, president and broker for Robinson Commercial Realtors.
His mother taught him about tenacity, he said.
“Don’t be afraid to stand up for yourself” was one lesson, he said. “Both of my parents gave us enough rope to hang ourselves, but they were there to cut us down.”
The family also is associated with the University of Cincinnati Bearcats.
Jane Robinson’s father, Leonard “Teddy” Baehr, a fullback on the UC football team, scored the winning touchdown against the University of Kentucky on Oct. 31, 1914. After that, Norman Lyon, a UC cheerleader, created a chant: “They may be Wildcats, but we have a Baehr-cat on our side.”
She was preceded in death by her husband William K. Robinson who died in 1996; son, W. Ken Robinson Jr.; grandson, Greg Sutton and son-in-law, William Moland.
She is survived by two children; grandchildren, Matthew (Chrisy) Sutton, Geoffrey (Amanda) Robinson, Mark (Amy) Robinson and Chip (Kelly) Robinson; great-grandchildren Gage Sutton, Charley, McKenzie, Baehr, Hadley, Hazel, Rylynn, Leland and Axel Robinson; and half-sisters Betsy (Ramie) Pearson and Marie (Mark) Timko.
A celebration of her life will be held at 11 a.m. Feb. 12 at the Mary H. Kittredge Chapel at Ohio Living Mount Pleasant, 225 Britton Lane, Monroe.
Contributions may be made to the Midpoint Library, 6 East St., Monroe, and Hope House, 1001 Grove St., Middletown.
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