WORD OF PALMDALE MAN'S DEATH A GRAVE MISTAKE.

Byline: BRENT HOPKINS Staff Writer

PALMDALE -- For a dead man, Richard Robinson looks remarkably well.

He grows tomatoes, fishes, watches television with his girlfriend. He's got a strong voice and handshake. In his estimation, the 73-year-old makes the world's best omelette and is a master of the German chocolate cake.

Written out of existence by his own brother in a shady estate deal years ago, presumed long gone by his family, Robinson appears healthy and vigorous as he hails visitors in his tidy Palmdale home.

``I'm supposed to be dead! ... Deceased!'' he says, laughing. ``But the good Lord took care of me.''

The whole tale unfolds like something out of a movie, with a long-lost sister, brothers who wandered the world, a doggedly persistent asset finder, the family home snatched under dubious circumstances and a tearful reunion.

Robinson, a Navy veteran and former forklift operator living in quiet retirement in the Antelope Valley, stands, amazed, in the center.

It all began more than 80 years ago in Lake Charles, La., where Wilbur and Isabelle Robinson made their home and raised nine children. Viola, James, Wilbur Jr., Elneda, Walter, Joseph, Noble, Richard and Rosemarie grew up close, playing and going to school together.

They eventually scattered across the country. Elneda graduated from high school and moved to Los Angeles in 1944, working at a sandwich counter downtown before moving to Washington with her first husband, a Navy man. Seven years later, after Isabelle passed on, baby brother Richard came out to live with Elneda. He loved her and looked up to her as an example of a fine, churchgoing woman.

He couldn't find steady work, so he lied about his age and enlisted in the Navy. His older brother, Wilbur Jr., was already a sailor, and it seemed like a pretty good way to make a living for a restless young wanderer like Richard.

Long stretches at sea made it hard to stay in touch, but the family managed to do so until 1959. While Richard was on leave, they met for dinner with Elneda, Wilbur Jr., Viola and Rosemarie -- all enjoying a good meal before saying goodbye for what would be the last time.

Richard, who served as a cook on an aircraft carrier and a minesweeper, went off to Vietnam a few years later. Contact grew infrequent. When he got out in 1968, he sent letters to Elneda's Seattle home, only to get them back, unopened.

He went looking for her, went back to the family place in Louisiana, sent more letters. Nothing. He'd already lost touch with the rest of the family but kept trying to find them whenever he had a chance.

He settled into a new life, living in Long Beach, working at a sheet metal factory and driving a forklift. All the while, Wilbur Jr. was living in Los Angeles, with each brother unaware the other was there.

In the early 1990s, the family home came up for sale, and Wilbur Jr. fell in with a disreputable Beverly Hills attorney who later got kicked off the State Bar's rolls for a long string of misconduct. Described as a smart, cunning man who struggled with a drinking problem, Wilbur Jr. wanted a larger share of the estate.

``Wilbur wanted to get all the money himself,'' Richard Robinson said. ``And when people want money, they'll do anything. He hadn't seen me in years, so he just said I was dead.''

Still alive

With the help of the attorney, Wilbur Jr. had his youngest brother declared legally dead, as well as another sibling, Walter. This paved the way for him to split the deed with Elneda and Joseph, who died in 2004.

Elneda fretted that Richard wasn't really gone, felt that he'd tried to find her somehow, but just didn't know where she was. Finally, reluctantly, she agreed he must be dead.

Wilbur Jr. got sick with cancer, dying in 1996. The attorney apparently plundered his estate, making off with $200,000 worth of cash and valuables, including antique guns, coins and his prized Lincoln Continental. Some of the money remained, floating in limbo in an account maintained by the state of California.

Enter Margaret Galasso, who runs the Spring Hill, Fla.-based Finders Assets Recovery Service, who turned up Wilbur Jr.'s name in a database of unclaimed money. She works from home, tracking down lost funds for celebrities, including Carol Channing, Ben Vereen and Jennifer Tilly.

Since Wilbur Jr. had already died, she began looking for next of kin. The project dragged on until recently, when she obtained a list of relatives and noticed that there were two Richard Robinsons with the same birth date, one supposedly dead, the other living in Palmdale.

Galasso plunged in like a detective, tracking down Robinson's neighbor and learning a bit about the older gentleman's background. He sounded awfully similar to the man Wilbur Jr. had claimed was six feet under.

``He sounded pretty good to me,'' she said. ``I didn't believe it. I said to myself, Could it be possible he's really alive? It was the first time I'd seen someone dead come back to life.''

`That's my brother'

So she called Robinson, catching him in the middle of dinner one night several weeks ago. She started asking questions about Wilbur Jr., to which he replied, ``Oh, that's my brother.'' An astonished Galasso then told Robinson that his brother had declared him legally dead.

Then she dropped a bigger bomb -- Elneda, whom he hadn't seen in 47 years, was alive and living in Shoreline, Wash.

Married and comfortable, his elder sister is now an 83-year-old retired nurse known as Elneda Mallory. Galasso called her house and asked Elneda's husband, Alba, whether his wife had a strong heart and could take some surprising news.

Sure, he replied, and put his wife on the line. Galasso said hello and said a man wanted to speak with Elneda.

``He said, `Hi, Sis!''' Elneda Mallory recalled. ``And I thought, I don't have a brother anymore. No one calls me Sis. But he knew about the church we went to, the neighbors we had, all kinds of things about how we grew up.''

And the tears flowed. They talked and found how they'd wandered apart. They promised to stay in touch forever.

``Every day before, we'd pray together,'' said Gloria Workman, Richard's longtime girlfriend. ``I asked God to help him find his people again. And when he did, I felt so excited, I just couldn't sleep.''

Thanksgiving reunion

The past few weeks have been a blur to the families. Richard and Elneda now speak by telephone several times a day and exchange letters and photographs. She tried to arrange for him to attend her 50th anniversary celebration in Shoreline this weekend, but it didn't work out.

Now, the families intend to reunite at Thanksgiving. Richard used to dream of this, as his ship patrolled the coasts of Vietnam, that he'd get together with his people for a big, old-fashioned meal. Though the family's a lot smaller than it was in his dreams, he's no less ecstatic.

``When she comes down here, we're going to lay down the red carpet,'' he said. ``We're going to eat and go over all the old times. This is really something, huh?''

They're even wondering now whether Walter, declared dead in the same deal that cut Richard out of the inheritance, might still be alive. Galasso's on the hunt and believes the other brother might be living in Arizona on an Indian reservation with a girlfriend.

Whatever the case, the brother and sister kept apart for so long are just happy to know the other is alive. After 47 years, they have a lot of catching up to do.

``I cried my eyes out, but I was crying for joy,'' Mallory said. ``I was so happy, and I thank God every day for finding my little brother. When I see him again, I'll do my best not to cry, so I can act like the big sister I am.''

[e-mail]

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

3 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Lazarus-like, Richard Robinson is back from the ``dead.'' Only he was never dead, a fact his brother ignored many years ago when he had the Palmdale man declared deceased so the brother could inherit his share of the family estate.

(2 -- color) He was long believed dead, but an asset-finder recently found Richard Robinson of Palmdale, and helped reunite him with his sister after 47 years. A reunion is planned over Thanksgiving.

Hans Gutknecht/Staff Photographer

(3) Wilbur Robinson Jr., Richard's brother, had him declared dead so Wilbur could inherit the family estate.