ROBERT JOHNSTON HEPBURN - "Bob" BIRTH: 1884 04 27 New Orleans FATHER: Samuel Chew Hepburn II MOTHER: Celestine Marie Mosley SIBLINGS: Sam Hepburn b. 1867 ?? [birth recorded by deposition] George Joseph Hepburn b. 1868 Annie Hepburn b. 1871 Stella Hepburn b. 1872 MARRIAGE: 1905 10 18 New Orleans SPOUSE: Marguerite Solares b NOLA age 20 F = Raymond Solares M = Juana Vincent (Vinet) WITNESSES: Modesto Solares (bride's brother) Anne J Pelletier (relationship unknown) G J Hepburn (brother or 1/2 brother) CHILDREN: Ashton Hepburn b. 1908 Howard Emerson Hepburn b. 1910 VOCATION: Salesman MILITARY: WWI draft registration, no service RELIGION: Roman Catholic DEATH: 1956 07 New Orleans

Robert about age 55-60, New Orleans 1940s

Hepburn Family on porch at 3303 Dumaine Street in New Orleans 1910. Left is Maggie with son Howard, born in January 1910, on her lap; son Ashton age 2 next to dad Bob.

Wedding portrait, New Orleans 1905

Robert Johnston Hepburn - "Bob" by grandson Wayne Hepburn My first recollection of my grandfather, who was called "Dad" by his grandchildren, was in Jeanerette, Louisiana about 1943-44. Bob was a salesman all his working life. He called on the grocery trade for Lever Bros Co (now Unilever) selling their detergent products. My mother, my younger brother Randy, and I, were living in Jeanerette while our father Howard was away in World War II. Dad came to visit us on one of his roads trips. I was age six or seven at the time. I remember I was called inside to see him and how his loud voice frightened me. When the war ended and my father came home we settled in New Orleans where he, and I, were born. I got to see my paternal grandparents frequently until death took them. They lived at 906 Harding Drive, just off Dumaine St and the Bayou St John. They spent their entire lives in that small neighborhood where the pirate Jean Lafitte moored his ship in the bayou. Near the end of Dad's life they moved to a smaller apartment at 907 Wilson Drive. My family often was there for Sunday dinner and my grandmother made the world's best fried chicken every Sunday that I can remember. My father and his brother Ashton would play cards with their father at a card table set up in the living room.		1945 visit to us in Jeanerette Randy, Dad,& me.
The game, which I never learned, was called "Cooncan", which I believe is the one Hoyle refers to as "Conquian". Anyway, their games were a shouting match. Dad always won. No matter what they did, including cheating, they could not best him at cards. Bob did not smoke, did not drink, did not use offensive language (in my presence at least). He had a tall secretariat desk with drop down writing panel and many pigeon holes filled with stuff I longed to play with. Occasionally he consented to my dragging out his poker chips and playing with them. For perspective, I was ten years old at the time. Nine years later I would be a pall bearer at his funeral. After his stroke left him partially paralyzed, and totally defeated mentally, they moved to Wilson and the Sunday dinners ceased at their home but were transferred to our home on Moss Street corner of DeSaix Blvd. Weather permitting, we set up the card table in the front yard. Dad could no longer play and Ashton was seldom present. The players were Howard, my brother Randy, my cousin Bobby [R J II] and me. The shouting was the same. We played cutthroat hearts, and somehow, my father almost always stuck cousin Bob with the queen of spades. Dad sat in his wheelchair and watched us. He never got up again. Bobby and I would go to Wilson Drive weekly (it seems) and try to walk Dad up and down the hallway from the bedroom to the kitchen. He refused to participate in his doctor ordered therapy. He could work his legs well enough to pull them up and prevent his feet from touching the floor. We could not make him desire to recover. I remember enough about him to write a small book but this is not the place for such an undertaking.

1884

1900  

Robert's name appears in the 1900 Census with his mother Celestine.
Image duplicated here.      
The index to 1900 census lists two additional 'no first name' Hepburns after Robert; names
presumed to exist in the blackened area on the form. But, the birthplaces of parents shown 
in the columns to the right indicate Germany and Virginia. We have no records nor knowledge of
any person of German heritage in this part of the family lineage. The enumerator or index 
transcriber has erred.


1905

New Orleans, Louisiana Marriage Records Index, 1831-1925
Name:          Margaret Solares         Age: 20
Spouse:        Robert Johnston Hepburn  Age: 21
Gender:        F
Marriage Date: 18 Oct 1905
Volume: 27	Page: 244

1910

1910 13th United States Federal Census Recordinfo  1910 04 25
5-Wd New Orleans, Orleans, Louisiana  -  3303 Dumaine St
listed in household:

name                     age    born   place          F=born       M=born       relationship
HEPBURN  Robert          25     1884   Louisiana      Scotland     Louisiana    head
         Marguerite      24     1886   Louisiana      Spain        Louisiana    wife
         Ashton           3     1907   Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    son
         Howard           3mo   1910   Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    son


1917



Draft Registration Card for World War I
Robert was not called to serve.


1920

1920 United States Federal 14th Census Recordinfo	1920 01 17
New Orleans 10th precinct - 3353 Dumaine St

name                     age     born   place          F=born       M=born       relationship
HEPBURN  Robert           35     1884   Louisiana      Scotland     Louisiana    head
         Marguerite       33     1885   Louisiana      Spain        Spain        wife
         Ashton           12     1907   Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    son
         Howard           10     1910   Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    son
also in household:
BILECI   Magdaline        43            Louisiana      Spain        Spain        sister-in-law
         Roman            18            Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    nephew [to Robert]
         Madaline         16            Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    niece  [to Robert]


1925 Post Card to Maggie

Postmark = Atlanta, Ga AUG 18 3:30 PM 1925 Hello Honey Am leaving tonight for Birmingham again and then for Mphs [Memphis] will leave for NO [New Orleans] Thursday night will be home Friday morning about 830 [?word] for sure lots of love Bob Addressed to: Mrs R J Hepburn 908 Delgado Drive New Orleans La [Author note: In 1925, Bob was 41 years of age and traveling as a sales rep for Lever Bros.]

1930


Fifteenth Census of the United States - 1930		1930 04 00
Louisiana, Orleans Parish - New Orleans ward 5 block 67 - 908 Taft Place

name                     age     born   place          F=born       M=born       relationship
HEPBURN  Robert           45     1884   Louisiana      Scotland     Louisiana    head
         Marguerite       44     1886   Louisiana      Spain        Spain        wife
         Ashton           22     1907   Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    son
         Howard           20     1910   Louisiana      Louisiana    Louisiana    son
		 
same address, different apt
BILECI  Albert A          28     Head
        Magdalene         53     Mother


1936


In 1936 Robert enrolled in the Social Security program as shown on this copy of his form SS5 
obtained through FOIA from the Social Security Administration. The form shows he stated his birth 
as April 27, 1884.

A search of Orleans Parish, Louisiana records, by the Secretary of State's Vital Records service, 
for ANYNAME Hepburn born in 1883, 1884, or 1885, yielded "no record". 
There were no recorded births of any child surnamed Hepburn in any of those years in Orleans Parish.

A search of internet records for all parishes in Louisiana from 1880-1900 produced indexed birth 
records for Stella and Mary Hepburn, the children of George J Hepburn, both in Orleans Parish. 
There is no record of the birth of Robert Johnston Hepburn in Louisiana under that name. 

Extensive searching of all Louisiana records under combinations of rob* with mose*, mosl* and 
delo* (wildcard for mother's maiden names Mosely, Mosley and Deloney) produced no child born 
in the range of Robert's supposed birth date.


1956 Obituary & Death Certificate

The Times-Picayune New Orleans - July 6 1956 - Page 2 Col 7 HEPBURN - On Thursday July 5, 1956 at 2:30 o'clock a.m. ROBERT J HEPBURN, beloved husband of Marguerite Solares; father of Howard E and Ashton Hepburn, brother of Ann Holmes; also survived by 8 grandchildren, age 72 years, a native of New Orleans, La. Relatives and friends of the family are invited to attend the funeral on Friday, July 6, 1956, at 10 o'clock a.m. from the auxiliary funeral home of Jacob Schoen and Son, Inc., 3827 Canal Street at North Scott with requiem high mass at Our Lady of the Holy Rosary church. Interment in Hope Mausoleum. [Source: Louisiana Division of the New Orleans Public Library. Photocopies of original newspaper pages or prints from microfilm obtained from library by Wayne Hepburn, 2007 06 22. Printed copies on file.]