Martha Ellen Robison Fowler

Martha Ellen Robison Fowler (1925-2026)

Martha Ellen Robison Fowler, age 101, passed away on June 11, 2026, in Sunrise Bay Village Assisted Living, located in Annapolis, MD.

Martha Ellen Robison Fowler was born in Caney, Kansas on February 11, 1925. She was one of 10 children, 5 boys and 5 girls. Her parents were Ned Jasper Robison and Ida Mae Fuqua Robison.

During World War II, recruiters visited Caney High school looking for workers for the civil service. She was hired and went to Tulsa, OK, to become one of the original “Rosie Riveters” making sheet metal parts for airplanes. After taking a civil service exam, she was hired and journeyed to Arlington, Virginia to work at the Pentagon.

There she met Marvin Fowler, a farmer, at the nearby roller-skating rink, where Marvin would help his community by growing crops for people to eat. The two fell in love and were married in October of 1944. The couple lived with Marvin’s parents on the Fowler family farm in District Heights, MD., where they sold the produce that they cultivated (tomatoes, melons, squash, corn, etc.). As a farmer’s wife, Martha worked farm chores such as hoeing fields, picking strawberries, tomatoes, etc., caring for their many animals (cows, chickens, ducks, dogs, cats, etc.), and doing the daily household chores. They had two children, David Lee, who had proceeded Martha in death and Dorothy Marie.

During this time, county planners of Prince George, MD. decided to purchase most of their farmland in District Heights to build a junior high school. So, in 1956, the Fowler family purchased farm acreage in St. Mary’s County MD. They later moved there with their son David. They named this farm “Sunnyside Farm” where they raised cattle, chickens, vegetables, and other crops. It was at the Eastern Market in Washington DC, where the family sold their dressed chickens, eggs, vegetables and feed sack fabric pillowcases and aprons, hand crafted by Marvin’s mother. After Marvin passed away in 1992, Martha helped her son, David, and her daughter-in-law, Valerie, grow and sell produce and other items.

While living in District Heights, the family attended the Epiphany Episcopal Church in Forestville, Md. Where she will be buried in the cemetery’s family plot alongside her husband Marvin and near her mother-in-law, Mearle Adele Payne Fowler and her father-in-law, Rufus Lee Fowler.

When she was 99 years old and after several heart attacks, she moved to Annapolis, MD. Where she would be nearer to her daughter and her daughter’s family. She lived at Sunrise Bay Village Assisted Living in Annapolis, MD. Where there was hope that she would be happy and make many new friends. She will always be remembered for her hardworking spirit and dedication to her family. She will be sorely missed, forever loved, but never forgotten.