Coulson, Harriet, 90, Valley Presbyterian Church at 945 Portola Road in Portola Valley, Calif., 2:30 p.m. Saturday followed by a reception and at 10 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 16, a graveside service at Klamath Memorial Park.Echer, Melba Lee, 83, and Donald Eugene, 85, Eagle Point National Cemetery, 2 p.m. Monday.Keeney, William W., 83, O’Hair-Wards Funeral Home, 10 a.m. Tuesday.AdvertisementLewis, Daniel G., 92, O’Hair-Wards Funeral home, 2 p.m. Friday.Manley, Dale Marie, 72, First Baptist Church in Dorris, 10 a.m. Saturday.Perry, Ann Stewart, 93, Klamath Christian Center, 1 p.m. Wednesday.Quinn, John William “Bill,” 97, Holy Cross Catholic Church in Tulelake, 11 a.m. Friday followed by a reception in Captain Jack Stronghold Cafe.Rowlett, Donald Eugene, New Frontier Ranch (formerly Box R Ranch), 16799 Highway 66, Ashland, 2 p.m. Sunday.#ndn-video-player-3.ndn_embedded .ndn_floatContainer { margin-top: 10px; margin-bottom: 20px; }...
(Herald and News)
The heroic, tragic story behind Ashland Park-Robbins school's name is still being taught 89 years later
Sep 5, 2017
The Robbins brothers knew their mother came first.They cooked breakfast for her every morning and dinner for her every night. Charles, 11, and Melvin, 9, could hardly remember a time when their mother wasn’t suffering from the paralytic illness that left her almost completely bedridden.But before one February night in 1928, few could have imagined how much the boys were willing to sacrifice for their mother. And few would have wanted to.In the decades since that night, many Omahans have heard the Robbins’ names without perhaps knowing their story. South Omaha’s Ashland Park-Robbins Elementary School, 5050 S. 51st St., is the only school in the Omaha Public Schools district named in memory of children.A plaque in the school briefly explains why: On Feb. 21, 1928, a fire broke out in the Robbins home. With their father at work, the brothers ran through the flames to their mother’s bedroom, broke a window and pushed her through. Both would suffer severe burns. One would die.The other would be killed less than a year later in another tragic accident.There is no happy ending to the Robbins’ story. Still, said Jan Martin, principal at Ashland Park-Robbins, third graders studying Omaha history learn about the brothers. Their heroism, she said, is a point of community pride.“It’s meaningful for the kids,” Martin said. Once they learn the story, they can share it.“It’s almost empowering to kids that they have a knowledge that most people don’t have,” she said.But in the weeks and months following the fire, most all of Omaha celebrated the Robbins brothers as heroes. Their names appear in headline after headline, chronicling the fire and its aftermath.The fire broke out while the boys were asleep. Early that morning their father, Floral Robbins, left the home at 4207 D St. for his job as a streetcar conductor. Fire investigators at the time believed that a half hour after Floral left, about 5 a.m., an oil stove in the kitchen exploded, igniting the blaze.The brothers woke and rushed to...
(Omaha World-Herald)
