Family Trees - Robert Lincoln 1921

Robert Martin Lincoln

Birth:		09-Apr-1921, Bayard, Nebraska
Death:		10-Jun-2022, Carmichael, California
Marriage:		12-Jun-1949 to Elsie Mae Warburton Phibbs

Paternal Lineage

Children

With wife Elsie Mae Warburton Phibbs:

Cathy, born - still living
Robert, born - still living

Notes

Robert was born and raised on a farm in Bayard, Nebraska. After graduating from Bayard High School in 1939, Robert worked for about a year around the farms where he grew up in Bayard and Wallace, Nebraska. Not wishing to be a farmer, he left home for Denver, Colorado, in the spring of 1940 to work for Sechrist Manufacturing Company, and then for S. H. Kress, a retail store, for about a year. Seeking better pay, he then worked for Remington Arms Company, and then he turned 21 in 1942 and had to register for the draft as World War II was getting under way. He opted to enlist in the Army Air Corps and was trained as an aerial engineer and top turret gunner for the B-24. His training took him to several states including California, Texas, Mississippi, Wyoming, New York, and Nebraska. He was then shipped overeas to England in 1944 just before D-Day, and conducted some pre-combat training in Ireland and parts of England before finally locating at the base in Halesworth, England, a town on the east coast of England, and, coincidentally, located about 40 miles southeast of Wymondham, England, the birthplace of Thomas Lincoln, the husbandman! From this base, his bomber crew flew 11 missions over Germany, targeting mostly railroad yards, oil refineries, and tank factories. He returned home to the United States in December, 1944, and was then assigned to a bomber crew for the B-29 in preparation for the war in the Pacific. However, the war ended before he flew any missions there, and he was discharged on 23-Nov-1945.

After WW II, Robert worked for Railway Express in Denver, saving money for college, starting the University of Colorado in the Fall of 1946. He went straight through without taking summers off, graduating in three years, and majored in accounting. During that time, he met his future wife, Elsie Phibbs, and they were married close to his college graduation date (he was 28, she was just one month shy of her 28th birthday). After college, Robert worked as an accountant for Firestone and Standard Oil of Indiana. While working for Standard Oil, Robert and Elsie had two children, both born in Denver, and then the family moved from Denver to Butte, Montana in the Spring of 1952. Two years later, Standard Oil transferred Robert to Billings, Montana in the Spring of 1954. Opportunities for advancement in the company seemed limited at that time, so Robert quit Standard Oil and the family moved to San Jose, California where Robert worked for Kaiser Aluminum. He was soon transferred to their plant in Moss Landing, California, a town near Santa Cruz and about 60 miles southwest of San Jose. Tired of the commute from San Jose to Santa Cruz, Robert began working for the city of San Jose in the finance department in April, 1958, eventually becoming the chief accountant for the city, and finally retiring from that job on 01-Sep-1984, working for a total of 26 years for the city of San Jose. Robert and Elsie lived in Saratoga, California for 49 years until moving to a nursing home in 2012 at the age of 91. They moved to a nursing home in Carmichael, California in 2014 to be close to their son. Robert died of pneumonia at the end of the COVID-19 pandemic, and his ashes are placed in the Sacramento Valley National Cemetery located about 30 miles west of Sacramento.

Robert's wife, Elsie Mae Warburton Phibbs, was born 16-Jul-1921 in Craig, Colorado. She grew up in southern California, and went to high school and junior college there. She worked for MGM Studios for several years in the accounting department. After WW II, she attended Uninversity of Colorado where she met Robert. After marriage, Elsie helped raise two kids and worked part-time for Macy's Department store for over 37 years. She and Robert were married just two days shy of 73 years. Elsie's ashes will be placed next to Robert's when she passes away.