Mildred Robbins Koskie

MILDRED ROBBINS KOSKIE Funeral services for longtime area resident Mildred Robbins Koskie will be held at 10 A.M. on Saturday, April 30 at Four Corners Funeral Chapel. Interment will follow at Cortez Cemetery. Mildred Robbins Koskie was born to Hiram Douglas Robbins and Edna Gertrude McIntyre Robbins on April 29, 1913, on a farm near Blakeman, Kans. She passed away at Southwest Memorial Hospital in Cortez on April 25, 2011. In the spring of 1918 the Robbins family purchased a farm near Achilles (pronounced A-Chill-us). Mildred attended a one room school of all eight grades called Pleasant View. She rode a horse two and a half miles most of these eight years. Mildred graduated from the Atwood Community High School in 1931. Before and after graduation she worked in an Abstract office and later for the Bell Telephone Company. In 1933 she married Maurice A. Koskie. Maurice worked for the W.P.A. during the Depression. In 1936 Maurice, Mildred and her parents moved to Southwest Colorado on a farm west of Egnar, Colo. That winter Mildred worked for a family of five, cooking and housekeeping for $20.00 a month. That winter the snow was four feet deep on the level in 1936/1937. In the fall of 1937 Maurice and Mildred moved to Slick Rock where Maurice worked in the vanadium mill and Mildred worked in the house. In the fall of 1938 Maurice was injured in a mill accident so they moved back west of Egnar on a small farm. In October of 1939 their son Jerroll (Jerry) was born. In the fall of 1945 Mildred was hired to teach at the one room log school called The Burn School. In the spring of 1946 they moved to a farm north east of Lewis, Colo. Mildred was hired to teach 4th and 5th grades at the Lewis school where she taught for 27 years. During the early parts of these years she attended summer school and took many night classes and became a graduate of Western State College. She retired from teaching in 1974. Maurice and Mildred spent 17 winters in Cottonwood, Ariz. They loved to dance and play games with all of their friends. Mildred loved to garden, can, sew, crochet, make quilts and oil paint. She was a 50 year member of the Lewis Grange, a member of the Retired Teachers Association, a member of the Lewis Friendship Club and the 55+ Dance Club. After Maurice passed away in 1994 she bought a home in Cortez as she was losing her eyesight and was unable to drive. She enjoyed her many friends who took her many places. She lived in that home and remained very independent until just recently. Mildred was preceded in death by her husband, Maurice Koskie; her parents; and her only sister, Ilene Miller. Surviving Mildred are her son, Jerry Koskie and wife, Maryann of Lewis; her grandchildren, Scott Koskie of Wellington, Colo., Kelly Sue Nielsen and husband, Russ of Sunnyside, Wash., and Kyle Koskie and wife, Mary of Lewis; and six great-grandchildren. Memorial contributions may be made in Mildred's name to the Southwest Center for Independence. Please contact Martha Mason at (970)259-1672 or send contributions directly to 835 E. 2nd Ave. Suite 200 Durango, Colo. 81301.