Established 80 years ago and helmed by numerous Robinson family members through the decades, now Gale B. Robinson will be carrying on the tradition of a family that has been involved in politics, law and burying people in Nashville since the 1930s.
"It was decided that I was the one to lead the company into the future," said Robinson, a third-generation funeral director and also a General Sessions Court judge in Davidson County.
Robinson, who now holds the title of owner and president of the funeral home company, declined to disclose terms of the sale of the funeral home based in East Nashville. It also has a location in Old Hickory.
Related7 decades of Robinson familyThe sale was finalized in early December.
"With 11 different owners, you can imagine — with the direction of the company," Robinson said. "I wrote them a letter that I was interested in buying, if they were interested in selling. They all responded they were. There was no disharmony. There was no fighting or fussing."
Among Nashville's prominent citizens who have been associated with the funeral home are former Circuit Court Judge Muriel Robinson, a funeral director, previous owner and past secretary-treasurer at the funeral home, and her husband, former Nashville Banner Publisher Irby Simpkins, who worked there as a business consultant.
One of its founders was Garner Robinson, the grandfather to current owner Gale B. Robinson, and a former sheriff, county coroner, state lawmaker and one of the central figures in the 1996 book The Secrets of the Hopewell Box , which chronicled the rise of a political machine in Nashville during the 1940s and 1950s.
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