Her father left the family soon after her birth, and her mother struggled with poverty as he drifted in and out of her life for some years before dying in Louisiana in 1910.
Nellie's elder brothers provided for the family; her mother was eligible for a Confederate widow's pension, but she did not begin to get money from it until 1937.
[5] That year she became the state's first female county attorney; she had run unopposed in the Democratic Party primary in July, and in November received 446 out of 448 votes cast.
After deliberation, Governor of Texas Pat M. Neff hit upon a solution to the problem: he would name three women to the special court instead, as the Woodmen were a fraternal organization and so had no female members.
[6] Robertson proved sanguine about her position; when asked how she felt about missing the chance to be remembered as the first female chief justice on a United States high court, she responded simply, "It is what it is.
She was an associate lay leader for the local district of the Central Texas Methodist Conference, and a grand matron of the Order of the Eastern Star as well.