Family, friends and the wider Oak Park community are mourning the loss of Robinson’s Ribs matriarch, Helen Grace Robinson who died Dec. 20.
She leaves behind her legacy of building Robinson’s Ribs with her husband, Charlie Robinson, into the iconic brand it is today. Family members said she also left an indelible imprint on generations of Oak Park residents she mentored.
Eight hundred or so family members, friends and others packed the First Baptist Church of Oak Park Jan. 3 to pay their last respects.
“She’s been a cheerleader for us, for me, for 53 years,” Charlie Robinson told the Wednesday Journal. “I have a lot of memories. We met in high school and graduated together in 1968 from Quitman County High School in Marks, Mississippi. I went to a liberal arts private college in Nebraska and she went to a small college, as well, in Clarksdale, Mississippi. I was on a basketball scholarship, and she was on an academic scholarship.”
The high school sweethearts, married June 5, 1971, had three children, Spencer, Cordell, and Christal Gail Robinson. They left Mississippi that same year to start a new life in Oak Park.
Following their relocation, Helen began a career at Pretzel & Stouffer Law Firm where she remained there for many years before Robinson’s Ribs’ debut in April 1983, at which point she started working at the restaurant alongside Charlie.
Despite the demanding hours working full-time at Robinson’s as she and Charlie worked to grow the business, Helen used her multitasking skills to make sure her family never skipped a meal and that she never missed her children’s sporting events or family outings.
Helen also served as an Eastern Star, a charitable nonprofit associated with Masonry.
And as an active member of First Baptist Church in Oak Park for 44 years, Helen coordinated many events and programs, including the annual Gospel Fest sponsored by Robinson’s Ribs, something that became a crowd favorite.
“It’s been a long journey, ” Charlie Robinson said. “I cherish all those memories and that’s what I live on now.”
Charlie Robinson said that about 850 guests showed up at the church last week – so many attendees that there was standing room only.
An outpouring of support was also shown on social media. Ade Onayemi, for example, shared on the Take Out 25 Facebook page: “My condolences to Mr. Charlie Robinson and the Robinson family. Mrs. Robinson was a wonderful lady with a warm and gentle personality. She will be missed.”
Cordell Robinson, the middle-born of the three siblings, told the Wednesday Journal his mother had an impact on the Oak Park community.
“When we moved to Oak Park, I was in kindergarten,” Cordell Robinson said. “I’m 52 years old now. When we moved here, my mom became part of the community. I remember joining the First Baptist Church of Oak Park. We were probably the first Black family in the church.”
Cordell added that his mother stepped in as a mother to all of his friends.
“My friends had single mothers and didn’t have a dad around,” he said. “I had a mom and a dad around, so my mom was like a mom to all of my friends and kind of became a mom to a lot of the kids around the community.
“She was not only a mother to me, my brother and sister but to a lot of the kids who grew up in the Oak Park area and to some of the Chicago kids who worked in the restaurant. She kind of changed their thoughts and changed their lives where they could go on and do great things in their lives.”
He said that as they got older, they started working at Robinson’s Ribs, and once his mom started full-time, she was the one everyone could go to with their problems.
“I always saw somebody in my mom’s office,” Cordell recalled. “She was doing more than helping out in the business. She was the person who could calm you down and help relieve you of your pain or whatever you were going through. She definitely was the person you could talk to.”
Helen Robinson’s father, Ezra Towner, Sr., was a Baptist preacher, and her mother, Ida Mae Green Towner, a housewife who also provided for their family.
Helen Robinson is survived by five grandchildren, Brittany, Breauna, Chase, Kendall, Kennedy Grace; and great-granddaughter, Brielle; five sisters, Viola, Elizabeth, Earline, Vergia, and Joyce; and two brothers, Rev. Ezra Towner Jr. and Gary (Barnell) Towner.
She also is survived by four sisters-in-law, Earnestine, Ann, Shirley, and Lizzie; one brother-in-law, Jimmie Robinson; special nephew, Eric Pride; and niece, Marvis Boyd along with numerous nieces, nephews, cousins, and friends.
In a tribute to Helen, Charlie wrote: “In life I loved you dearly, in death I love you still. In my heart you hold a place no other one can fill.”