Sankey Wright Robinson (1924-1986)

From the 1969 North Carolina Manual.

   A one-term member of the North Carolina State Senate, Sankey Wright Robinson was for over three decades a highly regarded figure in Columbus County, being at various times a practicing attorney, county solicitor, county recorder and college trustee for Pembroke State University. 

  Born in Columbus County on November 28, 1924, Sankey W. Robinson was the son of Jimsey Lewis and Mary Ann Britt Robinson. Bestowed the unusual first name "Sankey" upon his birth, Robinson was a 1941 graduate of the Evergreen High School and later enrolled at the Wake Forest University, graduating with his bachelor of science degree in the class of 1948. In August of 1947, Robinson married Elizabeth Hicks Wiseman (1925-2004), with whom he would have one daughter, Mary Elizabeth.

   Following his marriage Robinson would continue his education at the Wake Forest University Law School, earning his law degree in 1951. He would later establish a law practice in the town of Whiteville, North Carolina, operating here for over three decades. In 1954 Robinson began a four-year stint as a judge for the Columbus County Recorders Court, and from 1960-65 (and again from 1970-76), served as the county solicitor for Columbus County. He first resigned from this post in December 1965 and three years later was elected to a two-year term on the Columbus County Planning Board.

Sankey W. Robinson,  a class portrait from the 1945 Howler Yearbook. 

   In 1968 Sankey Robinson attained his highest degree of political prominence when he was elected to represent Columbus County in the North Carolina State Senate. Taking his seat in January 1969, Robinson served one term in the senate, being named to the senate committees on Agriculture, Appropriations, Conservation and Development, Constitution, Judiciary No. 2, Personnel and Employment Programs, and the Appropriations Sub-committee on Personnel and Long-Range Planning. 

   Robinson also experienced distinction in the field of education both before and after his senate term, being a trustee of Pembroke State University in North Carolina. He served twelve years as a chairman of that board and had earlier served as a member of the Whiteville city Board of Education. Active in both religious and fraternal affairs in Columbus County, Sankey Robinson was a past moderator of the Columbus Baptist Church Association, a trustee of the Whiteville First Baptist Church, a Shriner, a 32nd-degree Mason and was also a former president of the Whiteville Lions Club.

  After many of public service to Columbus County, Sankey Wright Robinson died at age 61 on May 24, 1986. Memorialized in a North Carolina senate resolution as "a family man and a true Christian", Robinson was interred at the Columbus Memorial Park and was survived by his daughter Beth and wife Elizabeth, who died in June 2004, later being interred at the same cemetery as her husband.