Alfred Robinson, Don Bobo died last week

By Jason Evans

Staff Reporter

jevans@thepccourier.com

PICKENS — Two Pickens County communities were left heartbroken last week with the deaths of a pair of former local businessmen and community leaders.

 In Easley, longtime businessman Alfred Robinson died Monday, Sept. 10, at age 89. Pickens, meanwhile, lost Don Bobo, the former owner of Bivens Hardware and a “pillar of the community” for decades, who died Friday, also at age 89.

“Easley meant so much to him,” Chris Robinson said of his father, who took over the family businesses, Robinson’s Department Store and Robinson Funeral Home, in 1953.

“He served literally generations of folks in the Upstate area,” Robinson said. “He knew so much about a lot of the families that we served.”

Alfred’s knowledge of local history “was vast,” Robinson said.

“Knowledge of the history of Easley was very important to him,” he said.

Rep. Davey Hiott agreed.

“He’s one of those people that when you talk about the city of Easley, his name comes up very quickly,” Hiott said. “It didn’t take long to go to Easley and know who Mr. Alf Robinson was. He was always a gentleman who was neatly dressed, very proper, always very polite. Whenever you went into the store or the funeral home, he was always the same. He’ll be missed in that community.”

In 1992, Alfred founded Robinson Memorial Gardens.

“He always wanted to achieve excellence, to continue to improve how we serve families at Robinson’s and the funeral homes,” Robinson said. “He loved to serve the public, and he treated them like family.”

Alfred was involved in a number of organizations throughout his life, including United Way of Pickens County, Easley Rotary Club, the State Chamber of Commerce, the Easley Chamber of Commerce, the Friends of the Library and the S.C. Funeral Service Board.

“He was a strong believer in community and in being active, in trying to

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