Ann Marie Roberts

June 1, 1930 - May 14, 2020

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Kilpatrick's Memorial Garden

1270 LA-544

Ruston, LA 71270

318-255-3999 |

Thursday 5/21, 2:00 pm

Graveside Service

Thursday, May 21, 2020 at 2:00 P.M.

Kilpatrick Memorial Gardens

cemetery

Kilpatrick's Memorial Garden

1270 LA-544

Ruston, LA 71270

318-255-3999 |

Thursday 5/21

Ann Marie Roberts passed away on Thursday, May 14, 2020, in Ruston, LA. Due to the pandemic, a private graveside service will be held this week at Kilpatrick’s Memorial Gardens. A memorial mass in her honor will be held at St. Thomas Aquinas Church at a later date.

Ann Marie was born on June 1, 1930, to Joseph and Christina Valenti in Gary, Indiana. She graduated from Lew Wallace High School in Gary, Indiana, and Loyola University in Chicago, IL, where she met her husband Don. She spent most of her life as a homemaker and mother to 7 children.

Ann Marie was preceded in death by her husband, Donald Roberts, daughters Therese Spurgeon, Christine Roberts, Maribeth Heurtevant, and granddaughter Caitlin Heurtevant.

She is survived by her daughters Susan Cline and husband Chip of Ruston, LA, Ann Marie Whitehurst and husband Paul of Celina, TX, Kathleen Acree of Salt Lake City, UT, and son Bobby Roberts of Dallas, Texas; eight grandchildren, and 8 great grandchildren.

Ann Marie’s life mission was to serve God and others through her numerous volunteer works. She was active in her community and her Church, St. Thomas Aquinas. She was a founding board member of Christian Community Action (CCA), and instrumental in opening up the Ruston Emergency Pregnancy Service (REPS).

Her faith meant so much to her that her life centered around the activities at St. Thomas Aquinas. She attended Daily Mass and enjoyed going to eat breakfast with friends after Mass at McDonald’s. She was Director of the Parish School of Religion (PSR), a volunteer for the Communion to the Homebound and Nursing Homes Program, a ministry very dear to her heart, a Sunday Choir Member,which singing was her great joy in life, Women’s Guild, and helping out with the ACTS (Association of Catholic Students) Wednesday Lunch.

Memorials may be made to St. Thomas Aquinas Church, 810 Carey Avenue, Ruston, LA 71270; Christian Community Action, 108 S. Bonner Street, Ruston, LA 71270; or Loyola College Prep Community Scholarship Fund, 921 Jordan Street, Shreveport, LA 71101, which provides an opportunity for students to pursue a Catholic education in the Diocese of Shreveport. Ann Marie was so happy her older children had the same opportunity she had in Gary, Indiana, to attend a Catholic grade school, St. Thomas Aquinas, when it was opened in Ruston, LA. We all loved the Franciscan Nuns who ran the school.

Please keep in your prayers the residents of nursing homes and their loved ones who are not able to be there with them at this time.

Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.kilpatrickfuneralhomes.com.

Kilpatrick's Memorial Garden

1270 LA-544

Ruston, LA 71270

318-255-3999 | Map

Thursday 5/21, 2:00 pm

Graveside Service

Thursday, May 21, 2020 at 2:00 P.M.

Kilpatrick Memorial Gardens

Kilpatrick's Memorial Garden

1270 LA-544

Ruston, LA 71270

318-255-3999 | Map

Thursday 5/21

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Ann Marie started serving others in childhood. For several years she was a loving companion to her older brother, a semi-invalid suffering from the ravages of Rheumatic Fever until his death when she was 11-years old. From immigrant parents she learned the value of hard work and obtaining an education, values she instilled in her children. In her high school and college years, she was involved in Drama—acting in Shakespearean plays—as well as Debate, Student Government, Choir, and Orchestra—where she played the Violin. She graduated with honors from Loyola University in Chicago in 1952 with a double major in Psychology and Social Work. It was at Loyola University that she met a dashing young fellow who’d just completed service as a Navy Pilot. She married Donald Roberts after she graduated on June 28th, 1952 at St. Mark’s Catholic Church in Gary. Once Donald obtained his Ph.D. in Chemistry, their family, which now included 5 children, moved to Morris Plain, New Jersey, where Dr. Roberts worked in Industry and Ann Marie sang in the opera Madame Butterfly as one of the three sisters. In response to the need of the local Catholic Church, she did work helping with adoptions. A year later in 1963 Dr. Roberts moved the family to Ruston, Louisiana, where he taught and researched for the rest of his career at La. Tech. University. They had two more children, bringing the total to seven. In the late 1960’s, Ann Marie was asked by Father Roe, the Catholic Priest in Grambling, to help out with the Head-Start Program there. The program was going to lose funding because it couldn’t find a White person to work there. Despite this being a very controversial and somewhat dangerous thing to do, she agreed to work because of her strong ethical beliefs. She was later instrumental in helping with the Pro-life Program started at the St. Thomas Catholic Church to help counsel young pregnant unwed Tech Students. She was actively involved at St. Thomas Church in the choir and as a lay-person helping the elderly, especially in nursing homes. She received a Service Award from the Catholic Diocese in her later years. Special thanks to her devoted daughter Susan and her neighbor Mary Carol who so lovingly took care of her all these years. Love Kathleen (Roberts) Acree

To know Ann Marie was a joy. She never met a stranger and was a friend to all. Her numerous and varied activities brought her into association with everyone, at least, it seemed so. She was kind, greatly talented, generous, intelligently conversational and consoling. We knew her through the Church and the choir in which she served for four plus decades, and in most of these years as the principal cantor. She was a teacher and leader, bringing so many along to fulfill their potential. Her services were largely performed behind the scenes, and the many sorrows in her life were quietly endured. The prayer commonly ascribed to St. Ignatius of Loyola was Ann Marie’s pattern in life: “To give and not count the cost, to fight and not heed the wounds, to toil and not seek for rest, to labor and not seek reward, save that of knowing that I do Your will.” Ann Marie lived her life as a humble servant of God. She was truly an angel who has now exchanged her earthly wings for heavenly ones. Our heartfelt condolences to her loved ones, Ann-Marie and Tony Jurkus

I met your Mom at Alpine while visiting my brother-in-law. At supper time I played hymns at the piano. When I asked, your Mom always replied she was fine. Those later weeks before the pandemic she did not leave her room and soon she was always in bed. When I would stop in, she would remind me that she could hear me playing. Your Mom was a blessing to me. I will miss & her sweet smile when I can return to Alpine.

My thoughts and prayers are with all of Mrs. Roberts family. She was a beautiful lady that had a heart of gold to everyone she came in contact with. Gary Bullock, Morgan City, La.

Please accept our deepest condolences for your family's loss.