1925 – 2017

FARMINGTON — It is with great sadness that our family announces the passing of Etta Jane Robbins on Friday, Jan. 27, who passed away after a short illness at age 91.

She was born April 10, 1925, in Pavilion, N.Y., the youngest child of Mae and Nelson Hammond. Etta was a first-generation U.S. citizen, as well as a British citizen; her mother had immigrated to the United States from England as an adolescent.

Etta was a loving wife, mother and grandmother, as well as co-owning a longtime popular restaurant in Farmington, the Star Lite Drive-In. She enjoyed outdoor activities including fishing, hunting, wildlife and flowers, along with knitting, sewing, cooking and enjoying her many grandchildren.

She grew up in a very healthy way on a working farm in western New York, where her father grew almost every fruit and vegetable imaginable, then spent most of her retirement years putting up vegetables from a gigantic garden she grew with her husband, the excess of which they donated to all nearby.

She is survived by two children, a son, Gary Russell Robbins (and wife, Diane); and a daughter, Gail Anne Robbins Lewis; as well as seven grandchildren, Kate, Abigail, Aaron, Brian, Bethany, Robert and Rebekah; and four great-grandchildren, Joshua, Camden, Bella and Samuel; along with two granddaughters-in-law, and many nieces, nephews and cousins.

Etta is predeceased by her husband of 60-plus years, Russell Smith Robbins, who passed in 2010. She is predeceased also by her sister, Wanda Lapp, and her brother, Wallace Hammond, both from western New York.

She will be greatly missed.