Johnnie Oates Robinson

Johnnie “Nonnie” Oates Robinson was born July 7, 1923, in the Busch’s Landing Settlement near Baytown, Texas. She was the 7th and youngest child of Robert F. “Bob” Oates and Sarah Arrilla Canon Oates.

Services for Mrs. Robinson will be 2:00 p.m., Thursday, March 16, 2017 at Pace-Stancil Funeral Home Chapel with Rev. Wayne Hardin and Don Allen Bode officiating. Interment will follow at Magnolia Park Cemetery. The family will receive friends Wednesday evening, 5:00 to 8:00 p.m., at the funeral home.

Johnnie was descended from some of the old pioneer families that settled in Polk County, Texas: the Oates, Wilson, Canon, Smith, and Beard Families. She was named after her two grandfathers, John I. Canon and Stephen M. Oates, because her parents were hoping for another son. Johnnie lived as a small girl in the Cedar Bayou and Goose Creek communities in Harris County until her parents moved to Dayton in 1932, where they eventually established a fishing camp on Day Lake. Johnnie accepted Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior, and followed in baptism on July 16, 1933, at Shiloh Baptist Church in Cedar Bayou, Texas.

Johnnie attended schools in Cedar Bayou and Dayton. From Dayton, she went to school in Tomball where she lived with her oldest brother and his family. From Tomball, she went to school at Cedar Bayou, where she lived with her oldest sister and family. Johnnie graduated from Cedar Bayou High School on May 29, 1942. During her time at Cedar Bayou High School, she was on the cheerleader squad. During World War II, Johnnie served her country as one of the “Rosie the Welders”. She worked as a welder in the shipyards in Houston where she became a Class A welder. Johnnie and her parents were also charter members of South Dayton Baptist Church, which was organized Nov. 18, 1946. Johnnie was the church’s first secretary and Children’s Sunday School teacher.

Johnnie worked at Dayton State Bank in Dayton, Citizen’s Bank in Baytown, Sharpstown Bank in Houston, and finally, Liberty Bank in Houston, from where she retired in 1985.

Johnnie loved to travel, especially to Bandera in the Texas Hill Country. Johnnie and her sisters had many great trips and vacations together, and those sisters really loved each other. She loved going to gospel singings, and she was also a regular attendee at the Liberty Opry for several years. She also enjoyed “fishing” at the casinos in Louisiana, and recently, at the Alabama-Coushatta Indian Reservation casino, but more than anything else, she loved her family and spending time with them. She always looked forward to family reunions and holiday celebrations with the immediate family.

In Sept., 1995, she moved into the Dayton Retirement Center where she enjoyed getting together with the “girls” for coffee, playing bingo, cooking for the birthday dinners every month, and participating in all the other social events there. Johnnie was the last of the original group that moved into the retirement center the first day the center opened.

She is preceded in death by her parents; her husband of 43 years, R. H. “Bill” Robinson; her daughter, Linda Bode; her two brothers, Arthur Bernie Oates and W. W. “Bill” Oates; her four sisters, Annie Dahlquist, Margaret Pennington, Grace Davidson, and Jennie Fondren.

She is survived by: daughter and son-in-law, Eilene and Joe Alamia of Crosby; son-in-law, Orvel Bode of Dayton; grandchildren: Danny Bode, Donnie and Hedi Bode, Rodney and Wendy Bode, Wendy and James Copeland, Joey and Kathryn Alamia, and Jeffrey and Alyssa Alamia; great-grandchildren: Don Allen Bode, CaLeigh and Cole Turner, Layne Bode, Hillary Copeland, Alyssa Copeland, Nikki and Matt McMahon, Brittany Holcomb, Ivy Alamia, Joseph Alamia, and Andrew Alamia; great-great-grandchildren: Kenzie Holcomb and Scarlett and Calvan McMahon; and sister-in-law, Marie Vavrusa of Hallettsville. In addition, there are several nieces and nephews who loved their Aunt Johnnie.