Batman, Scott Baio – the 'Forrest Gump of Warren County' has met everyone

MAINEVILLE, Ohio – Pam Robinson, 71, describes herself as the "Forrest Gump of Warren County."

Her life has been full of celebrity encounters local and otherwise, many during her time coordinating horse shows across the country and winning car shows in the 80s.

She's met Pete Rose, Scott Baio and Batman. She's a 12-time champion of car shows across the country. She's raised peacocks and ostriches.

You may have even seen her on a Wheaties box.

Robinson has kept her news clippings, awards, photos and yes, the cereal box. She invited The Enquirer into her home in Maineville to see the keepsakes from her time traveling the country.

'I want the ball'

Robinson grew up in Waynesville more eager to run around with her brother than compete in pageants with her twin sister Pat.

"When she was a cheerleader in high school, I tried out for it because she begged me. Wouldn't be nice to have twins on the team? I'm trying out and all of a sudden, I realized I want the ball. So I played basketball instead," she said with a laugh.

Her first celebrity encounter was appearing on the "Paul Dixon Show," a morning variety show broadcast on WLWT-TV from 1955 until 1970. She met singer Colleen Sharp there.

She met Pete Rose in 1975 when she was visiting a friend's house,

"She said, 'Pam, go back to the living room and see who's there.' I said it's just a bunch of guys back there and so I went back in there and it was Pete Rose and Tony Perez," she said.

Her second husband also sold Coors Light for Johnny Bench for years.

Horse shows across the country with 'America’s Most Trusted Horseman'

Robinson and her third husband raised peacocks, ostriches, emus, turkeys, rabbits and horses at their farm in Waynesville. They named their farm Thumper's Nest because Robinson's coworkers kept dropping off rabbits so they could go rabbit hunting. They sold their farm and now live in Maineville.

Her favorite horse was an Appaloosa called Drew, short for We Drew Straws. He's buried in her backyard. She and Drew were on a Wheaties box as part of the company's "Breakfast of Champions" editions.

Robinson's love of horses, and especially Appaloosas, led to her longtime friendship with John Lyons, who's known nationally as “America’s Most Trusted Horseman” for his training methods.

Both Drew's lineage and the lineage of Lyon's horse Bright Zip go back to Man o' War, known widely as the greatest racehorse of all time.

Robinson said Lyons taught her how to look at a horse's body and use a round pen to teach them how to follow you around.

“God told me to keep this man in my life,” she said.

And she does. Lyons visits Robinson when he's in the area for horse symposiums.

Robinson and Lyons did Equine Affaire expositions, which include horsemanship competitions and trade shows for riding apparel and equipment, with audiences of roughly 3,000 to 4,000 people. Robinson was the special events director. The shows included Tommie Turvey, the animal coordinator who trained the Clydesdales in the 2013 Budweiser Super Bowl ad, and Pam Fowler Grace, who rode her famous horse Pay N Go at the memorial for Paul McCartney's wife Linda.

Lyons said he was drawn to Robinson's natural ability to care for horses and people.

"I think Pam's horse career helped bring out and blossom her abilities to care for others," Lyons said. "That's what horses do for some people."

Car shows with Scott Baio and Adam West

Robinson loves muscle cars and said the sound of an engine starting always turns her head.

"I've never taken drugs in my life and never wanted to smoke pot or do pain pills. But I do get high when somebody starts an old muscle car up," she said.

Reggie Jackson once tried to buy Robinson's car, a 1967 Chevrolet Chevelle Super Sport she named the "SS Cruiser."

Robinson used to take the car to shows but after three years of winning every show, she retired. The International Show Car Association honored her with the Woman of the Year award in 1981, after 12 first-place wins. She was in the parade for the Indy 500 as a result.

"I have to say, for back then in the early 80s, they treated me as a woman very well. They would call up to shows and say, 'Is that woman with the Chevelle coming? Because I can't beat her and I don't want to drive all the way to this show and sit there,'' she said.

She could often be found with her hair tied up, under a car stamping transmission numbers with ink on her finger to make them stand out.

Robinson met Scott Baio and Adam West at separate car shows. West and George Barris, who built the Batmobile, took her out to dinner.

"They were just telling me how much they liked the Chevelle. I said well, it's all original. You know, Chevrolet made it, I just drive it," she said.

Lyons said Robinson is dedicated in everything she does.

"Everything she does is 100%. She's like that with horses, she's like that with cars," he said.

Erin Glynn is the watchdog reporter for Butler, Warren and Clermont counties through the Report For America program. The Enquirer needs local donors to help fund her grant-funded position. If you want to support Glynn's work, you can donate to her Report For America position at this website or email her editor Carl Weiser at [email protected] to find out how you can help fund her work. 

Do you know something she should know? Send her a note at [email protected] and follow her on Twitter at @ee_glynn.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Meet the Ohio woman who's met Pete Rose, Scott Baio and Batman