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Hundreds remember Trudy Robinson

NICOLE FORMOSA
summit daily news
Summit Daily/Brad Odekirk
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SILVERTHORNE ” The sun broke through the clouds Friday morning, as the community took time to remember the life of longtime Silverthorne resident Trudy Ann Robinson.

The service at the Silverthorne Pavilion was packed with hundreds of people whose lives Robinson touched during her 70 years ” family, lifelong friends, guests from her bed and breakfast, grateful kids who she welcomed in her foster home, lovers of the Mountain Community Fair and acquaintances from her decades of civic service.

Robinson passed away Jan. 2 after suffering a heart attack.



The room was decorated with Robinson’s handmade quilts, while her picture, surrounded by two dozen red roses, took center stage at the front of the room.

Mourners who couldn’t squeeze into the main hall lined the second-level balcony. Friends who had known Robinson most of her life spoke about her rare ability to pick out a special quality in everyone she came across.



“One thing about Trudy is she could always justify a person’s behavior, or a person’s lifestyle, she wasn’t negative at all,” said Ted Westervelt, who grew up with Robinson in Scotts Bluff, Nebraska.

Most memories, though, revolved around Robinson’s warm, comforting home, even at her childhood house.

“You could come and go as if it were your own home,” said Westervelt. “There was always a basement full of kids, who came in, robbed the refrigerator and played records.”

The atmosphere continued as Robinson grew older.

Her home in Silverthorne with her husband, Bruce, and their three kids was never empty.

For 23 years, their house doubled as a foster home, welcoming in emotionally and physically abused kids.

“She created a home that should have been for them, even if only for a few days,” said longtime neighbor and friend Bruce Miller. “(The kids) always left the house with a feeling of warmth and a glimmer of hope.”

The Robinson’s also ran a bed and breakfast out of their home for more than two decades, where people who wandered in would often become part of the Robinson’s extended family.

In one case, a man named Todd Walker stayed at the bed and breakfast and ended up marrying the Robinson’s daughter, Ann, several years later, Miller said.

Miller also praised Robinson’s motherly tendencies, which made her so approachable.

“Just like a mom, she would find you a job, a place to live and even a spouse if that’s what you needed,” he said.

Miller recalled a time in the early 1980s when Robinson helped establish the Mountain Community Fair so her daughter could have a place to show horses.

He described the fair as a “big family reunion” for locals and as one of the first things that brought the community together.

While tears flowed freely during the service, some laughs came out during old stories about Robinson.

Lyle Burry, who had known Robinson for nearly 60 years, brought out some of those smiles, when he told a story of a trip to Mexico he and his wife took with Trudy and Bruce many years back.

The group was looking for a parking spot, when Trudy pointed one out. Instead, Burry decided to choose a spot he had found.

“Trudy said, ‘Oh, here I am bossing him around like I do Bruce and he’s not listening either,'” Burry said. But, by the end of Burry’s short speech, he and the rest of the room were in tears again.

A choked-up Burry summed up best how everyone in the room was feeling.

“If we all lived a Trudy life, the world would be a much better place,” he said.

Nicole Formosa can be reached at (970) 668-3998, ext. 229, or at nformosa@summitdaily.com


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