|
Bernice Dean Roberts, a resident of Albuquerque since 1973, passed from this life on June 1, 2002. Born in Cash, Texas to a farming family on July 5, 1902, she was the second youngest of four daughters and three sons of Charles Reed Dean and Josie Eveline Bateman-Dean. Following the loss of her father when she was ten years old, Bernice and her six siblings worked long hours in the family's cotton fields or in the boarding house opened by her mother to help the family survive. Following graduation from high school in 1919, she attended East Texas Teachers College (now part of the Texas A&M sysem), Commerce, Texas before joining her favorite sister, Vena, in El Paso, Texas in 1922. It was here, while working at the White House department store and living with Vena that she met her future husband, John Henry Roberts, who lived in the apartment just across the hall. Married October, 5 1923, in Las Cruces, New Mexico, Bernice bore her first child, a son, Uhl Dean, December 3, 1924. She bore a second son, John Harlan, July 10, 1936. The Roberts family remained in El Paso until 1937 when a prolonged strike at El Paso Electric Company, forced Mr. Roberts to seek employment with the fledgling Tennessee Valley Authority. During the war years, Bernice worked as a Red Cross volunteer. In 1949, her husband left the TVA to accept a position with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers where he remained until failing health dictated his retirement as superintendent of Whitney Dam, Texas in 1964, and claimed his life on March 22, 1971. Bernice shall be remembered as a devoted mother and doting grandmother who enjoyed crocheting, needlepoint, stitchery, and quilting. Both sons and all grandchildren have handmade quilts and crocheted afghans from"Granny R" who always enjoyed working on handmade projects. She is survived by her two loving sons and daughters-in-law, John and Penne of Albuquerque, Dean and Sue of Canby, OR; and by her six grandchildren, Ann Moeller of Sacramento, CA, John and Patti Roberts of Albuquerque, Ron and Linda Roberts of Calgary, Canada, Jon and Pamela Roberts of Austin, TX, Jacqueline and Al Raines of Vancouver, WA, and David and Melisa Thibeau of Lake Oswego, OR; and 13 great-grandchildren. A Memorial Service honoring Bernice and the 100th year of her birth will be held in St. Paul's United Methodist Church, 9500 Constitution Ave NE, at 10:00 a.m. on July 5, 2002.
|
