Emma Inez (Robbins) Rogers

Emma Inez Robbins was born on February 19, 1910, in the hills of Menifee County, Kentucky, in the small community of Leatherwood. She was the daughter of John Morgan Robbins and Izania Ellen “Zane” Hatton. In the 1910 census, she appeared simply as “No Name Robbins,” an unnamed infant in her parents’ household — a quiet beginning in a rural community that had shaped her family for generations.

Emma grew up alongside her sisters in the Robbins household, rooted in the rhythms of farm life, church gatherings, and close family ties. By 1920, she was attending school and was recorded as able to read and write — a meaningful foundation for a young girl growing up in rural eastern Kentucky.

On July 12, 1928, at eighteen years of age, Emma married Leonard William Rogers in Powell County, Kentucky. Together they began building a life during the hard years of the Great Depression. Their family grew steadily. Loma Eureva Rogers (1929–2003) was born in Bowen, Powell County. Glenn Morgan Rogers (1930–2006) followed in Fagan, Menifee County. Over the next several years came Gilbert Ralph Rogers (1931–2004), Anita Ray Rogers (1933–2019), Mabel Vondetta Rogers (1936–2025), and Charlena Mae “Susie” Rogers.

Census records from 1930 and 1940 show Emma and Leonard living in rural Menifee County, Kentucky, where Leonard worked and Emma kept house. She was recorded as having completed the seventh grade.

By 1946, Emma and Leonard had permanently relocated to Kokomo, Howard County, Indiana, where Leonard found steady work. City directories throughout the late 1940s and 1950s list the family on North Armstrong Street and later on South Main Street, marking the steady establishment of their household in Howard County. The 1950 census records Emma’s occupation simply as “keeping house.”

Photographs from the 1930s through the 1960s show Emma in many roles: seated on a front porch in rural Kentucky; standing beside Leonard in work clothes outside their home; gathered with extended family; holding a granddaughter in April 1962; and later, seated beside her husband in a softly tinted portrait in their later years. Together, these images reflect a woman who lived her life in quiet steadiness — not seeking attention, but firmly rooted in family.

Emma experienced both loss and longevity. Her mother passed away in 1954, and her father in 1961. By then, Emma herself had become part of the older generation — a grandmother watching her family continue.

Emma Inez Robbins Rogers passed away on September 14, 1972, in Kokomo, Indiana, at the age of sixty-two. Her obituary confirmed her Kentucky birth, her 1928 marriage, and the family’s move to Kokomo in 1946. She was laid to rest at Sunset Memory Gardens in Kokomo.

Though she spent her later decades in Indiana, Emma’s life began in the hills of Menifee County. The foundations laid there — family loyalty, steady work, and quiet endurance — shaped the course of her life. She left behind not only children and grandchildren, but a lasting thread woven into the larger story of the Robbins and Rogers families.