Art, understanding form lifelong bond
Art, understanding form lifelong bond

By Ron Jackson Comments 0
Published: June 15, 2008

CORN — Paraplegic Matt Robinson had no mother, no father and no grandparents.

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Cherilen Slagell helps Matt Robinson operate a computer Thursday at Corn Heritage Village. The machine was given to him by the children of longtime friend and photographer Bob Taylor. Taylor, who died recently, befriended Robinson as a boy. by CHRIS LANDSBERGER, THE OKLAHOMAN

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He had no one except Bob Taylor, a photographer and neighbor who befriended the now 31-year-old man as a reckless youth more than 25 years ago in his hometown of Cordell.

Back then, Robinson was a troublemaker, and Taylor was known internationally for his pioneering photographs of agriculture.

They soon formed an unlikely but inseparable friendship.

"Gonna make me cry,” said Doris Scarlett, a medical assistant who watched the relationship bloom in recent years at the Corn Heritage Village nursing home. "The caring, the feeling, the love that Bob felt for him (Robinson).

"That was a son and daddy relationship.”

Taylor died April 5 at age 87. He left a directive to family and friends: Don't forget Robinson.

So, in death, Taylor's children — Gregg Taylor of Dallas, and Susan Taylor of Jacksonville, Fla. — purchased a new laptop computer for their father's dear friend. Robinson, who has been confined to wheelchair since 1995, received his present last week.

"Bob Taylor is a good man,” said Robinson, who was paralyzed and suffered brain damage 13 years ago when a tractor-trailer hit him while he was hitchhiking in Tennessee.

"He's in heaven,” Robinson continued. "He's in a better place than I am. He walks with angels.”

A reputation for kindness

In this world, Taylor earned a reputation for walking with the downtrodden.

"Dad was the champion of the oppressed and the unfortunate,” said Gregg Taylor, who operates a printing business in Dallas. "He was very, very private in a lot of his matters. But I can't tell you how many times he would hear about some widow who was behind on her bills or a payment. He would go down to the bank and anonymously deposit money into that person's account,” Taylor said. "He did this all the time.”

Taylor and his late wife, Wilma, first encountered Robinson as a child when he went to live with his great-grandmother, Olivia, who was a neighbor. "Olivia raised Matt,” said Sherry Ernst, a long-time Cordell resident and Corn Heritage Village medical assistant. "Matt's mother never really was around, and Matt never knew his father. So his great-grandmother was all that he had. Bob could tell she was having a tough time handling him. That's when he stepped in. He saw something special in Matt.”

Bob and Wilma Taylor introduced Robinson to perch fishing in the creek behind their home, as well as the opportunity to splurge on ice cream or giant slices of watermelon. Like many of Cordell's children in those days, Robinson also became the subject of Bob Taylor's Norman Rockwell-like photographs.

Friendship endured tests

That down-home style of photography carried Taylor to a prolific career that spanned more than 50 years and earned him thousands of publication covers on national and international magazines, calendars, greeting cards and advertisements.

Taylor never abandoned Robinson despite Robinson's escalating encounters with the law.

Robinson once derailed a train outside Cordell.

Locals like Taylor didn't defend the crime but rallied around the troubled youngster.

The railroad company never pressed charges.

Then, the accident with the tractor-trailer happened Robinson's senior year of high school.

"Bob visited Matt every day,” Ernst said. "He was always bringing him things like bubble gum or a magazine to read. ...

"He was like a grandfather to Matt, and if Matt ever needed anything like clothing, he always made sure it was taken care of. Bob loved Matt.”