Myrtie Robinson is Wellton parade's grand marshal

Few people have a day named for them, but few have done as much for their hometown as Myrtie Robertson.

Robertson will display her civic commitment again when she serves as Wellton's 2008 Pioneer Day Parade grand marshal on Saturday.

On March 3, 1998, when Robertson retired, Wellton Mayor John Nussbaumer proclaimed it Myrtie Robinson Day - not surprising for a native known as a tireless postal employee for nearly 20 years, with two as acting postmaster.

Those who know her best were very pleased by her selection as grand marshal.

"My oldest daughter thought it was pretty nice," Robertson said. "My oldest brother thinks it's wonderful. He wishes he could be here."

Robertson grew up on a ranch 35 miles from Wellton on the Gila River. Robertson is the granddaughter of the Hatfield family, one of the pioneer families of the Wellton-Mohawk Valley.

The Hatfields worked a beef cattle ranch north of Dateland in 1932, where their Bermuda grass and alfalfa crops were irrigated with well water pumped by a diesel engine. Robertson's maiden name is Todd, who along with the Dennis Gross family, which were relatives, were also among the first settlers of Mohawk Valley.

Although Mohawk Valley was never as wild as the OK Corral in Tombstone, Wellton was still unsettled in some ways in the 1950s when Robertson went to high school.

"I had a nearly 100-mile round trip to Yuma Union High School every day when I lived with my grandparents in Roll," Robertson said. The road from the Hatfields' ranch was thick with dust or, when it rained, a muddy morass.

It took over an hour to get to school, in part because the engine was controlled by governors that prevented the bus going more than 50 mph. But thanks to construction of the Antelope Union High School, students no longer endure the hardship Robertson did.

Robertson escaped to the bright lights of Blythe, Calif. That is where Robertson met her husband, Louie, who employed her as a hostess.

The Robertsons then moved to the even more glamorous Los Angeles, but it wasn't to their liking. When Myrtie's father became ill, they moved back to Mohawk Valley, where Louie worked for the county highway department and ran an exterminating business, the only one in town at that time.

Settling in a home along the Gila River, Robertson came to inherit her mother's bottle garden. It was a collection of antique elixir bottles with stoppers, dating back to the turn of the century. These were stored in a shed covered with Arizona license plates, that also stored antique farm tools.

The house they had near the Gila River was damaged in the devastating flood of 1993, which destroyed a lot of their antique treasures. They eventually moved to nearby Citrus City.

An active woman not content with merely collecting mementos, Robertson is an avid gardener. What she is particularly proud of is a greasewood bush in her backyard. This is not a pretty species, but a desert shrub, yet Robertson has nurtured it to an uncommon height of over 10 feet.

Robertson also raises a variety of other plants and flowers. In keeping with her reverence for antiquity, she has transplanted a Mexican morning glory cutting from her grandmother's 1930s garden.

The theme of this year's parade, the 31st annual, is Digging Into Our Pioneer Past. Although not confirmed, organizers expect to have antique cars and tractors, marching bands from Yuma grade schools, a sheriff's posse, the MCAS color guard and floats from RV parks and elsewhere.

Following the parade will be a fiesta with a carne asada barbecue put on by local Catholic youth organizations, as well as craft booths and entertainment with KAWC DJ Mark Reynolds providing a country western and vintage '50s rock 'n' roll soundtrack.

"I think people will thoroughly enjoy the festivities - it's pretty neat," Robertson said.

Becky Hopkins, Wellton city clerk and Robertson's friend, said despite getting on in years, she still loves to trek out in the desert north of Highway 80 for day trips and sometimes look for the original homestead of the Hatfields' ranch, but she can no longer pinpoint where it used to be.

"She really amazes me," Hopkins said. "She is a uniquely genuine woman - very open-hearted."