Mary Robinson Obituary
Mary E. Robinson, 97 years old passed away on Friday, February 21, 2020 at Elmcroft Nursing Home in Bridgeville, PA. She was born Christina Mary on December 25, 1922 in Homestead, PA to Slayman and Sarah Esper, both immigrants from Syria who met and married in the new world. She was the 6th of 11 children. Of them, she is survived by Joseph Esper of West Mifflin; Mayor Betty Esper of Homestead and James Esper. Beloved mother of James Fidler of Hendersonville, PA and Robin Robinson (Amy) of Westwood, NJ; preceded in death by her husband Clyde and her daughter Tamara Fivehouse. She was the grandmother (Sittoo in Arabic) to Jesse, Rebecca and Rose; great-grandmother to Max, Zach, Demi and Della. She was loved, admired and sometimes endured by countless nieces, nephews, great-nieces and great-nephews. In her life, she counted as friends people in high places and those born of more modest means. In Homestead, everyone knew the name “Mary Robinson” because of the unconventional life she lived. And because she probably did their hair.
Mary Robinson’s life was full, tumultuous and a complete chapter of the American life. Born into the working class life of immigrant parents in a mill town where they endured the Great Depression, she was able to escape into the Armed Forces, where she served in the Women’s Air Corp (WAC) as a nurse’s aide. This was the first of her unconventional moves. There she met her first husband, recovering pilot Melvin Fidler, had her first child James and used the GI Bill to study cosmetology, which became her life’s work. At the dissolution of that marriage, unconventional at the time, Mary worked as a beautician when she met her second husband, Clyde Robinson, and opened her first beauty parlor in the front room of their duplex house in Homestead where her next two children, Robin and Tamara, were born.
From there, Mary opened a beauty parlor in Homestead Park; then Oakland; then finally 8th Avenue in Homestead and ran all three of them while raising a family: the third unconventional move. Mary Robinson was determined that her children would not mirror her meager upbringing; she was a striver, unsatisfied with the average and in that regard was completely American. The stresses and responsibilities of that striving took their toll on her second marriage; and upon separation moved her children to Greentree, sold off all three businesses and set up her last and only hair salon next to a pizza parlor. After selling that business, she went to work at JC Penney’s salons and back to Homestead to work in a salon there. It wasn’t until she was in her mid-80s that her children finally convinced her to retire but she continued to cut and style hair in her apartment in Greentree.
In an age when women’s roles in America are being re-examined and truths of their contributions to American life are being brought out of the shadows, Mary Robinson can be seen for what she was: a pioneer as a woman business owner. If she had been born a man, she would have been lauded for her life’s choices. Her work ethic was unparalleled, but it didn’t come without sacrifice in her personal life. She often took in the lonely and desperate and gave too much away, but everyone who was in her sphere felt her generosity, especially when times were bad. A natural fighter, she brooked no fools but was fooled herself many times because of her big heart. She was a contradiction and at the same time, entirely consistent. She leaves her family a rich legacy of memories and love.
Arrangements and a viewing were conducted by R. V. Anderson Funeral Home of Homestead, PA. She is interred at Jefferson Memorial Cemetary in Pleasant Hills, PA.
