Dates

• Existence: 1887 - 1952

Biography

Laura Mae Atkinson Robinson was born in 1887 in Ovando, Montana, to Benjamin Franklin Atkinson and Josephine Curry Atkinson. After Benjamin Atkinson was killed in a logging accident, Josephine Atkinson married Adelbert Armstrong and moved back to Iowa Falls, Iowa. Mae Atkinson graduated from Iowa Falls High School. As a teenager, Atkinson took sewing classes at Edgewood, a community center for girls in Iowa Falls founded by Mrs. Eva Simplot. Atkinson later took business courses at Ellsworth College in Iowa Falls.

Mae Atkinson moved to Des Moines, Iowa, and took a job with the Home Insurance Company. During this time, she began corresponding with her cousin, Ralph Benjamin Robinson, who lived in Minnesota. In 1917, Mae Atkinson and Ralph Robinson married at Atkinson?s home in Iowa Falls. The couple farmed land in Minnesota and together they had three children: Glenn, Ruth, and Don. The family moved back to Iowa in 1933. Mae Robinson died in Iowa Falls, Iowa, in 1952.

Found in 1 Collection or Record: