Verna E. (Dunckley) Robinson
Marriages
William Dennis Armstrong - 1936
Armstrong died in 1938
Edmond Robinson - October 1941
Burial Details
Obituaries
Steamboat Today - March 2, 2008
Verna E. Robinson died Jan. 30, 2008, at the age of 97.
She was born on March 20, 1910, on her parents' homestead near Phippsburg. She was the second surviving child of Walter and Mary A. (Yoast) Dunckley. Her parents were pioneers in Routt County, coming here in the late 1800s. Verna's mother's parents, William and Mary Yoast, homesteaded in Dunkley Park, south of Hayden.
After their homestead was destroyed by fire in 1923, Verna lived in Phippsburg, Steamboat Springs and Yampa before moving to California in 1927 for a few years. She returned to Steamboat Springs in 1929 and later moved to Golden, where she worked at the Coors Porcelain Company.
Verna married William Dennis Armstrong in 1936, and they had a son, Robert, in 1938. William passed away in March of 1938, and Verna and Robert moved back to Steamboat Springs and then to her Uncle John Dunckley's ranch in Dunkley, Colo. She met her future second husband, Edmond Robinson, there in September of 1941. Verna and Robert moved to Hawaii in 1941, where she and Edmond were married in October 1941. They were there on Dec. 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked the United States at Pearl Harbor. Ed was in the U.S. Army Air Corps and stationed at Hickam Air Base. Verna and Robert returned to Steamboat Springs in February of 1942. Ed and Verna's daughter, Edra, was born in 1942 while her father was in the war in the South Pacific. He finally was able to meet her upon his return in 1943.
The family then moved to Pueblo Air Base, and after Ed completed his tour of duty there, they returned to Steamboat Springs and Hayden for a few years. In 1949, he returned to active duty at Lowry Air Force Base in Denver and later to Luke Air Force Base in Phoenix. In 1960, upon her husband's retirement, the family moved back to Aurora, where they had bought a home in 1949. After Edmond's death in 1978, Verna and Edra remained in the Aurora home.
Verna was put to rest on Feb. 5, 2008, at the Olinger Hampden Mortuary and Cemetery in Denver. She was preceded in death by her husbands, William Armstrong and Edmond Robinson; her parents; two brothers, Herman and Chester Dunckley; her sister, Dorothy A. Wright; her daughter-in-law, Reda Robinson; and her grandson, Robert Clayton Robinson, Jr. She is survived by her son, Robert Clayton Robinson, Sr.; her daughter, Edra Robinson; her brother, Clarence Otto Dunckley; her granddaughter, Rachel Williams; five great-grandchildren, four great-great-grandchildren, and many nieces and nephews. She was a member of the Pearl Harbor Survivors Association in Denver.