Shelia Lee Robinson

On November 28th, 2025, the world lost a true public servant. Shelia Martin Robinson spent the majority of her 80 years on this earth as a caregiver to everyone she met – loved ones and strangers alike. The hardest part of the end of her journey was to allow others to care for her, as she was so very used to being the one doing the caregiving.

Shelia was born to Fred and Alice Martin of Silver Grove, Kentucky in 1944. She grew up a sheltered, and well-loved, only child in a boisterous family full of characters. Her cousins became her siblings, and she adored each of them for the entirety of her life. Growing up in a small-town shaped Shelia’s world view and meant that the friends she made there were ones she held dear her whole life. She graduated from Silver Grove High School as salutatorian in 1963. Caring for her parents meant that she entered the workforce right after high school, delaying pursuing her dream of nursing school for many years. Eventually, with encouragement from her friends and her husband, she was able to attend nursing school and became an LPN.

In the interim, she began her career with William Booth Memorial Hospital in Covington, working in various clerical positions. Her time working at Booth brought amazing people into her life – dear friends whom she would cherish until the day she died. Working at Booth also provided her with the opportunity to meet a charismatic Covington fire-fighter whom she would marry and start a family. She adored his large, chaotic family and being part of them meant the world to her. Losing him on her 36th birthday was a pain she never truly got over.

Becoming a single parent was not easy and certainly not what she envisioned for her life. She did her best – always making sure her daughter, Michelle, had access to her beloved books (no matter how tight the budget was) and encouraging her to seek knowledge and to travel. Michelle and Shelia butted heads during Michelle’s teen years in the way only a mother and daughter, both with strong personalities, could. If she could have had one wish during that time, it would have been for Michelle to lose the power to roll her eyes. Honestly, she would have enjoyed having that wish granted far longer than the teen years. She had a great sense of humor, answering to Helen, the nickname Michelle bestowed upon her because she had trouble seeing and was loath to wear her hearing aids. She loved Michelle’s friends almost as fiercely as she loved her daughter – considering so many of them as her bonus kids.

Later, Shelia was reunited with her high school sweetheart, Lonnie. They would spend the next thirty years together – traveling, going to concerts, jitterbugging their way across dance floors, and spoiling their dogs, Jake and Harley. Shelia, once again, stepped into the role of caregiver when Lonnie was diagnosed with cancer in 2013 – making sure he passed at home, with her and their dogs by his side.

Even after losing two great loves in her lifetime, Shelia still found joy in the small things. She loved Hallmark Christmas movies, any and all medical procedural shows (the Chicago fire/med/pd/911 franchise especially), and she really, really loved watching David Muir – whom she found to be both a talented newscaster and super dreamy. She still enjoyed traveling, when she was physically able, especially her trips to New York City and Florida, in recent years. She often talked about the trips she and Michelle took – to Asheville, NC, to San Francisco, to the Pacific Northwest, and to the Virgin Islands. She also found happiness in caring for her soul dog, Simon, who never left her side for a moment during the final days of her life.

Shelia was blessed with so many friends and family and friends who became family. She was also blessed with amazing neighbors who welcomed her into their homes and their families and she adored them.

Shelia was predeceased by her parents, Fred and Alice Martin, her husband, Richard Robinson, and her long-time partner, Lonnie Dickens. She is survived by her daughter, Michelle Robinson-Wilson and her son-in-law, Stephen Wilson. She is also survived by her beloved cousins, her close friends, her neighbors, and all those whose lives she touched over the years.

Shelia loved flowers, but she also loved dogs and was gutted every time the Sarah McLachlan SPCA commercial aired. Anyone wishing to do so, can make a donation in her honor to the Boone County Animal Shelter.

Friends and family are invited to pay their respects on what would have been Shelia’s 81st birthday, December 3rd, 2025 from 5-7 pm at Newcomer Funeral Home, 4350 Dixie Hwy. Erlanger, Kentucky 41018. Burial will be private