Ruth Etta Canady Robinson, who died Dec. 2 at age 86, learned perseverance when she found herself in an orphanage as a child, an experience that schooled her in compassion as well as tenacity.
When Ruth was 7, her mother died in childbirth, along with the baby, leaving her father alone with six children. His job as a railroad worker meant odd hours and frequent trips away from their small rural Oklahoma home, so he installed the children in the state’s Deaf, Blind and Orphan Institute for Colored Children.
“Initially, she thought he was cruel, but after she was older and more mature, she realized that her father did that for their own safety,” said daughter Janice R. Morgan McDonald.
“It made her into a woman of tenacity. Quiet tenacity. She was a quiet hero – a she-ro.”
When she was 16, Ruth Robinson and her school-age siblings came to Colorado to join their father’s fiancée at her Denver home. But the marriage never materialized, leaving the children more or less on their own.
Robinson put her own education on hold and worked for years, putting her younger siblings through school. Then she returned to earn her degree from Manual High School.
She attended Saints Junior College, a Mississippi school affiliated with the Church of God in Christ, and later became dean of girls there.
Her dedication to her home church, Odom Church of God in Christ in Denver, sustained her through widowhood and other trials. She took a keen interest in the church’s girls, who saw her as a mentor.
In 1959, she embarked on funding a Church of God in Christ scholarship for a graduating high school senior. Many in the highly patriarchal church questioned her decision, leaving Robinson to raise the money on her own.
“At the time, it was a pioneering event, and everyone at church wasn’t thinking it was a needful thing,” said Dr. Marilyn Chipman, who received the first scholarship.
“I have never, ever forgotten her for putting that type of confidence in me and giving me a boost. When I earned a doctoral degree, needless to say, I honored her at the ceremony.”
Despite the initial disapproval about the scholarship, Robinson continued to maintain a strong presence in the church. She served as the supervisor of the Montana jurisdiction of the Church of God in Christ, traveling regularly to Great Falls, even after her health began failing and she relied on a cane.
“For nine decades, this woman weathered storms that would knock me flat,” Chipman said. “That generation of women cried many nights, but they remained strong. Who on earth will fill their shoes?”
In addition to her daughter, survivors include four grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren.
Staff writer Claire Martin can be reached at 303-954-1477 or cmartin@denverpost.com.
