Jacqueline Robertson, 96, of Columbia, MO, formerly of Saline County, died Wednesday, May 14, 2025.
Funeral services will be held at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, May 17, 2025, at Campbell-Lewis Chapel in Marshall, with Pastor Gary Smith officiating. Visitation will be from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m prior to the service. Burial will follow in Ridge Park Cemetery. Memorials are suggested to Ridge Park Cemetery – Road Campaign, and an online guestbook is available at https://www.campbell-lewis.com/
Sit back and relax, Jackie lived a long and full life.
Jacqueline Joyce Frazier was born October 2, 1928, to Dorris (Dory) Wayne Frazier and Bernice (B) E. (Shirkey) Frazier in Amarillo, TX. Her sister, Marilyn Jane Frazier completed the small family; born August 4, 1932. During the Depression, the family returned to Missouri where her father taught school. They moved around a lot to accommodate her father’s small town teaching jobs which only lasted only 9-month stints. She lived in Montgomery City where they lived in the Teloni house. During the summer months, out of a job and out of a living space, the family went to Colorado where Dory would teach, and B would teach crafts and woodworking at a summer camp. Jackie loved swimming. She became a WSI (Water Safety Instructor), and she taught swimming lessons and lifeguarded in Colorado; and later in a similar summer camp in Steelville, MO, where she taught swimming lessons on the Meramec River.
When Jackie was 15, the family moved from Montgomery City to Jefferson City where Dory taught school and studied and applied to the Missouri Department of Conservation where he was a founding member in the department’s Education Division. The whole family loved and experienced the out of doors. Jackie loved birds, wildflowers, trees, and everything in nature.
Jackie completed High School and two years of Junior College in Jefferson City and was a Jeff City Jay. She had many friends who influenced her love of art including Bill Scott, also a lifelong friend. She studied French and short-hand and was the artist for the Jay’s Yearbook. She kept those yearbooks with her drawings all her life.
During High School, Jackie and Marilyn became lifelong friends with Mary Margaret Blair, daughter of the Lieutenant Governor and later Governor Blair.
In 1948 Jackie continued her education at the University of Missouri, where she was a member of the Pi Beta Phi Sorority. She loved being a Pi Phi and made many lifelong friends there. She graduated in 1952 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts. Post-graduation, Jackie worked for the Department of Natural Resources in Jefferson City as an artist.
In 1954, Jackie married a guy from Saline County she had met at MU, Danny Robertson (also known as CoonDog). They lived in the Lustron house at the corner of College and Lafayette. Not long after they were married Jackie and Danny moved to the Houston House on the hill just south of Malta Bend. In 1955 they became parents to twins, Danny and Dana; on 11/22/55. Two years later, Monte was born on 11/19/57. And one and a half years later, Julie was born 03/29/59. Yes, she had four children under the age of three and a half! When asked how she did it, she said she had no idea, didn’t remember a thing. Jackie raised four children with the help of Lunbeck who helped with the kids, and Della who cooked on Fridays.
The now large family lived and thrived on the farm where Danny farmed with his father Van and brother Murrell. The Lake, known as Robertson Lake, was built in 1955 down below the Houston House. Family and friends were invited to the lake to fish, swim, ice skating parties and even to drive a big old car on the ice. Virginia Beasley often came to visit, and the two lovers of art would find a spot, get their watercolors out and just paint. From that time on, Jackie always kept her watercolors with her wherever she went; but opportunities to get her brushes out to paint rarely happened.
Big Danny built the Buzzy Car for the kids to drive… a three-wheeled vehicle with a tractor tire in the back and two small tires in front. Life on the farm was magical to the kids, probably chaos for Jackie; but it was heaven.
Big Danny also loved the Lake of the Ozarks. He and his buddies John Huston, Gus Granneman, Wash Alexander, brother Murrell had built a four-bunk, pontoon houseboat, “The Undecided”; and in 1963 Big Danny built a larger, 8 bunk houseboat on steel pontoons, which launched in 1964; it was a nail-biter if it would float…but it did and found a home in Indian Creek on B and Dory’s point on the Gravois arm of the Lake of the Ozarks.
Jackie loved to spend as much summer as was possible on the houseboat with four small children. No phone, no electricity. She taught them to swim and had diving lessons; the kids slept with their lifebelts on, and had to trek up the hill to use the outhouse. They fished, caught crawdads, snakes, lizards, and made paths in the woods. Mornings saw kids with yellow and white enamel cereal bowls rinsed in the lake between the front pontoons. Evenings saw dinner on the back deck over a charcoal fire; sometimes the raccoons would come on board before they were finished eating. The days lasted forever, maybe punctuated with a baloney or a float-trip sandwich. When Big Danny would come, they would cruise down the lake and return to the point, or just tie up on the island they owned, or some random bank. Big Danny farmed and often arrived to the lake by plane; flying his plane to Wulff Harbor airport after buzzing the houseboat yelling “come get me!”
The Marshall Inn was the next project. Originally a Best Western Motel, the Inn had 24 rooms, restaurant, banquet room, patio room, pool, and private club “the Plowboy Club”. Big Danny broke ground on the project in 1966, and it opened in 1967. Jackie helped with interior design and artwork, and many of the area’s families made it a popular meeting and entertaining venue. Club members and their kids spent long days by the pool.
In 1971, Jackie and Danny went to see Elvis in Las Vegas. The group included Bob and Mary Ann Mull, and Poodle and Lucy Utlaut.
Dr. A.J. Campbell, a fraternity brother of Coon Dog, was the family doctor; but they never saw him at his office. Jackie and A.J.’s wife Janet were great friends. The families frequently got together on the farm, at Robertson Lake for dancing to the player piano, or at the Lake of the Ozarks for Cruising and Boozing on the Houseboat.
Sam and Suzanne Edwards were Saline County natives who lived in St. Louis, and also had a houseboat across Indian Creek Cove. The families, along with Col. Frank Duggins, retired, built the Edwards A-frame house. With little children pitching in and a make-shift construction crew consisting of a station wagon, ropes and pulleys in trees, they raised the A’s and built the Boom-Hut. Jackie and Suzanne were great friends for many years. The families traveled to the Bahama’s together where Sam put his love of sailing to the test, taking everyone on the ocean.
After a tragic car accident in 1968 when Murrell, Mary Lou and Susan Robertson were killed, their surviving daughters, Sally Ann Robertson and Jayne Murrell Robertson came to join the family on the hill. On her 40th birthday, Jackie welcomed two additional kids to the fold, all totaled ages: 13, 13, 13, 11, 11, 10.
Jackie had a saying on the wall:
He who eats here
must trust to Fate
to please his Palate
and fill his Plate.
Sometimes there is
sometimes there ain’t
I am no cook
I like to paint.
So the next few years were filled with a full house as everyone in it had at least one or two friends over at any given time. There was cheerleading practice, kick-the-can nights, majorette practice, basketball practice, ping pong in the basement, fashion show rehearsal, and all kinds of cooks in the kitchen, (all except Jackie). Many nights saw a long trail of taillights heading south after a Malta Bend High School basketball game where Jackie happily hosted dozens of kids at the Robertson house on the hill. She received a plaque from the kids to commemorate her hospitality.
In 1972 Jackie’s son Danny was killed in another car accident on Clyde’s corner 3 miles east of Malta Bend. Tragic and sad, but Jackie somehow just kept her chin up through all the chaos.
Jackie’s sister Marilyn Bell with her son Frazier moved to Marshall from Dallas in 1975. And Frank and Maggie Duggins and family moved back to Marshall not long after. Jackie lived in Malta Bend and spent many evenings in Marshall visiting Marilyn and the Duggins. Mary Margaret (Blair) Cook Hayes became a frequent visitor for raucous games of spoons.
Sam and Suzanne ventured to a beautiful Caribbean Island in later years, inviting Jackie to sail the ocean on their Morgan 46 “Sunshine”. A.J. and Janet Campbell added to the crew a couple of trips. They all behaved like pirates and had the time of their lives sailing the Caribbean in the Virgin Islands. Jackie loved getting to experience this beautiful foreign Island with her fun and adventurous friends, making the week-long trip three times.
In 1977 Jackie saw Europe. Julie, Bruce Blalock and Jackie embarked on an MU Tour which took them to London, Bath and Stonehenge. More than an educational tour, she spent a week navigating the city on buses, the tube and lots of walking. She saw Buckingham Palace, the Chelsea Pensioners Royal Hospital, the Tower Bridge, street performers, and several pubs and taverns. This was Jackie’s only visit to Europe.
All the kids slowly left. Sally went to Columbia college then married Robert Malan, Dana went to MU, Jayne went to Oklahoma, Monte went to the Navy, Julie went to MU, and Big Danny moved to Marshall.
In 1981, Jackie and Marilyn were able to have a little cabin built on their father’s point in Indian Creek. The 24’x24’ cabin became her summer home for many years. She and Marilyn would spend nearly the entire summer there receiving lots of guests who stayed on make-shift beds.
Non-summer months Jackie spent most nights on the phone with Marilyn and Mary Margaret. Many of Julie’s friends continued to frequent the kitchen table for hours, especially when Mary Margaret came for a visit. Angie, Bruce, Jacquelyn and Julie loved to hear all the stories and laugh till the sun came up.
Rae Frazier Paarfus, Jackie’s aunt, but only four years older; came back into Jackie’s life in the 80’s. She visited often from Richmond Virginia bringing lots of color to the crowd. Jackie and Mary Margaret drove to Richmond to be guests of honor at lavish Richmond parties and festivities many times through the early 2000’s. Other trips included New Mexico, Colorado, and Seattle. Her friends were always a big part of her life.
In early 2006 she accompanied Julie and Van to Maui, HI and enjoyed being Nana to Reagan and her cousin Taylor on that trip.
Jackie moved to Columbia and lived on Glen Eagle Drive from 2006-2022 when she moved into Tiger Place. During her time there she continued to stay in touch with old friends, and old friends slowly began to disappear.
The cabin was always a respite. Always. She loved being there. She loved having her friends there. In 2014 Julie held week-long “Camp Nana” for eight 13-year-old girls. Jackie (Nana) was there for the duration!
After that time, Jackie continued to stay many nights at the cabin. One of the highlights of some trips to the cabin were storms. The lightning lit up and shook the entire cabin. Once she said, “It’s kinda FUN…if you live.” Trips to the cabin with Julie continued all up to the fall of 2024. She took her last ride on the pontoon with Julie and Claudia on September 6, 2024.
Jackie lived in the house on the hill until 2006. Between 1974 and 2000; Sally married Robert Malan and had three children, Stephen, Andrea and Susan; Dana married Rick Alexander, and had three boys Blake, Van and Ross; Jayne married Greg Kempf, and they had three children, Emily, Natalie and Chase; Monte married Luanne Ehrhardt, together they had four children, Jennifer, Brian, Jessica and Danielle; Julie married Van Allen and they had one daughter, Reagan. Jackie was preceded in death by her grandson Blake. Jackie had eight great-grandchildren and one great-great-grandchild.
Jackie, Nana, Robertson breathed her last breath at 3 A.M. on May 14, 2025; with Dana by her side.
I love you Mom. —Julie