Ila May Robison

 Ila May (Pierce) Robison was born October 26, 1918 to Perle Bryan and Velma Irene (Scott) Pierce in rural Coon Rapids in Guthrie County. She joined a brother, Ivan. Another brother, Nyal, came a couple years later. A sister, Hazel, died in infancy.

 Ila loved to talk about growing up on the farm and all the adventures she and her brothers shared. She was just 4 years old when started country school in the first grade. Attending high school meant walking four miles each way on dirt roads that turned to mud when it rained. She took Normal Training, which meant she could teach country school when she turned 18.

 Because she graduated at 16, she could only be a teacher’s assistant for a year. Walking to school every day took her past the Robison Garage where men seemed to always be sitting out front. She ducked her head and hurried by, but Charlie Robison noticed the pretty brown-eyed girl and made sure he met her.

 When she was 18, she got a teaching job near Arcadia. By then she and Charlie were a couple and were married on June 20, 1937 in a double wedding with Charlie’s brother, Bob, and his fiancée Phylis Bancroft. Married women weren’t allowed to teach school, so Ila had to wait until WWII when there was a shortage of male teachers.

 The couple had three children and called them all by their middle names: Scott, Jeannette, and Ray. Two had their parent’s first names and one was named for both grandfathers. Ila made most of the kid’s clothes and toys and held down various jobs when the kids went to school. But she considered herself an artist and drew on every scrap of paper that came near her all her life.

 Ila was baptized in the Christian Church (DoC) in Coon Rapids when Scott was a toddler. She was always active in her church and tried to live a Christian lifestyle.

 When they purchased the Robison Garage from Charlie’s dad, they put up a new building and Ila was the bookkeeper with her own office. They moved to Yuma, AZ for a few years, and then moved back to Coon Rapids where Charlie died in 1994; ending their 57-year love affair. Ila moved to Lytton and then to the home of Chuck and Jeannette Strain. Her last move was to the Park View Rehab Center in Sac City where she was a joy to care for and never complained. For her 80th birthday, she wrote the story of her life up to when she met Charlie, the story of his life up to meeting her, and then wrote of their life together.

 Ila went to her eternal heavenly home on September 27, 2024 at the age of 105 years,11 months and 1 day. She was preceded in death by her husband, Charles, her parents, brothers Ivan (Ruby) Pierce and Nyal (Beth) Pierce, infant sister, Hazel Pierce, sons-in-law LeRoy Olson and Charles Strain, grandson James “Tony” Robison, and step-granddaughter Dianna Olson.

 Left to mourn her passing include her children: Charles Scott (Nancy), Robison, Ila Jeannette Strain and Perle Ray Robison, 16 grandchildren, great-grandchildren, cousin Donna Ostrem, nieces, nephews and numerous family and friends. She will be missed by those who knew and loved her. 

 Memorial Services will be held on Saturday, October 5, 2024, at 11a.m., with visitation from 10:00 a.m. to 10:45 a.m., all at First Christian Church (DoC) in Sac City, IA. Inurnment will be held in the Coon Rapids Cemetery, at 2:00 p.m., the same day. Memorials may be directed to the First Christian Church (DoC) Memorial Fund.