ROBERTA MAE
only daughter of
Robert E. Henry, Sr. (1905-1976)
and
Elizabeth Marilla (Smith) Henry (1912-1932)

It was a cold New England winter's day, that 31st day of January, and the world was in the throes of the Depression when ROBERTA was born in an apartment on Parrott Street in Lynn, Essex County, Massachusetts. Three days later, ROBERTA's young mother died at a mere nineteen years of age.

ROBERTA was the second child of ROBERT E. HENRY ... a native Texan born in Milam County, & stationed in Boston courtesy of the United States Navy ... & ELIZABETH MARILLA SMITH ... a native of Maine.

ROBERTA & her older brother, Robert, Jr., spent the first formative years of their lives in the state of their birth. Their father remarried while there, and the family was eventually extended with the addition of three half sisters.

In the mid-late 1930s, ROBERTA and Robert, Jr. came to Texas to live with their paternal grandparents, EDGAR and BERTA MARY (SHARP) HENRY, at Norton in Runnels County. A few years later, EDGAR and BERTA returned to Milam County with their grandchildren.

EDGAR had originally moved to the Bethlehem Community in Milam County as a child, before the arrival of the SAAP Railroad. He had remained a resident of Milam County for more than forty years before moving to West Texas around 1920.

BERTA MARY was a descendant of an early Texas pioneer family which had originally settled in the unruly area of San Augustine c. 1812. She was born and raised in Houston County, and moved to Milam County shortly before her marriage to Edgar in 1895.

ROBERTA attended the public schools at Sandy Creek and Milano east of Rockdale before her grandparents finally settled at 514 No. Scarbrough Street in Rockdale during WWII. ROBERTA graduated from Rockdale High School in 1949, where she was involved in many activities, including being a popular cheerleader for four years.

After graduation, ROBERTA worked at Mehaffey's for a short period of time before going to work for Southwestern Bell in the fall of 1949. The Ma Bell offices were upstairs over the Singer's Grill at that time. She worked as a telephone operator until Bell went over to dial when Alcoa came to Rockdale.

ROBERTA has bittersweet memories of being a gawky young girl, sitting on the porch of her grandparents' home, and watching a handsome older man (by four years & a few months) ride his feisty horse by her home.

On the 10th day of October in 1950, ROBERTA married that knight in shining armor ... FORREST LEE POUNDERS. The ceremony took place in Freeport, Brazoria County, Texas, where Roberta's brother was living. The young newlyweds, BERTA and FUZZY, settled at 522 No. Wilcox in Rockdale, where they spent the next 45 years of their life together. This home was located just one block west of the house ROBERTA had shared with her grandparents on Scarbrough. FORREST LEE died in that home on 17 January 1996, following a diagnosis of kidney cancer in the Spring of the previous year.

ROBERTA and FORREST LEE's four children ... Vickie, Rebecca, Pamela, Robert Forrest ... were born at St. Edward's Hospital in Cameron, Milam County, Texas. Their three daughters as well as their son attended Rockdale's public schools. Over the years, BERTA and FUZZY spent an uncountable number of hours supporting the activities and interests of their children and grandchildren.

ROBERTA is an accomplished seamstress who had designed and made her own clothes even as a high school student. In the '50s, she spent many hours sewing matching outfits for her three daughters, as evidenced by numerous photographs taken during that time period.

Some of ROBERTA's favorite pastimes have included stained glass design and creating, woodworking, gardening and travel. She was actively involved in the Rockdale Centennial Celebration in 1974, as well as the local Texas Sesquicentennial events in 1986. As a teenager, she attended the First Baptist Church, but has been a member of the First Christian Church in Rockdale since her marriage.

In the mid-seventies, ROBERTA and her brother returned to New England for the first time in forty years. While on that pilgrimage to the land of their birth, they commissioned a marker for their Mother's unmarked grave. Since that time, ROBERTA has returned to Maine and Massachusetts twice.

One of ROBERTA's more recent artistic creations was finalized with the placement of a custom-designed tombstone at the final resting place of her chosen life-mate. The unique marker stands on a rise in a little country cemetery just south of Rockdale (in Lee County). It is truly a monument to the love she shared with that handsome young man on the fancy-stepping horse.

ROBERTA is currently on the staff of Phillips & Luckey Funeral Home in Rockdale.

*Thinking that her Mother's middle name was Mae, Roberta started spelling her middle name that way sometime after she started readin', writin' & 'rithmatic. It wasn't until some years later that Roberta found out her Mother's middle name was actually Marilla, and that the May spelling was from her maternal grandmother, Eva May Smith nee Brackett (1874-1936).