Rozilla Morton Roberts

ROBERTS, Rozilla Morton, 101, Bangor & Dover-Foxcroft, at Bangor, November 9, 2013. A memorial service will be conducted 1 p.m., Saturday, November 16, 2013, at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church. Arrangements by Lary Funeral Home, Dover-Foxcroft.

Rozilla Morton Roberts

    BANGOR & DOVER-FOXCROFT – Rozilla Morton Roberts, 101, died November 9, 2013, at a Bangor Nursing Home. Rozilla was born August 7, 1912, In Johnstown, PA, the daughter of Ethel (Burrowes) Morton and Ernest W. Morton. During her freshman year in high school she moved with her family to Portland. While at Deering High School, from which she graduated in 1930, she starred in basketball and played on one of Deering’s first field hockey teams. She also played the xylophone in the school band and played background music for radio commercials.
    Rozilla spent many summers at Camp Laughing Loon as a camper and a counselor. She served as camp director one summer when the regular director became ill.
    She graduated from Wheelock College, where she majored in elementary education. Following graduation, she started her teaching career at Cumberland Center. She taught grades K through 4 in a one room schoolhouse.  She also coached basketball at Greeley Institute.
    While teaching at Cumberland Center, she met and eventually married another coach and teacher, Lewis P. Roberts. Lewis left teaching to work as an agricultural county agent in Dover-Foxcroft. Upon marrying, Rozilla moved to Dover-Foxcroft, a town she loved and felt was the perfect place for her. Eventually, she continued her teaching career at the Pleasant Street School in Dover-Foxcroft, and the Zipple School in Presque Isle. She was well regarded by her peers and loved by her students. Rozilla was a member of Kappa Delta Pi, an honorary educational society.
    A very pleasant person, she had a genuine interest in most everyone she met, was fun to be around and was constantly visited by neighborhood children as well as friends.
    She enjoyed winters in Zephyrhills, FL, and especially loved summers at her camp at Sebec Lake. She loved nature and animals, and liked sharing that love and knowledge with her son, David, daughter-in-law, Mary Lou, and her grandchildren. Her strong values were handed down to them and others.
    Rozilla was active in many civic organizations. She was a member of the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church, belonged to the Extension Service, and was a past member and president of the Miosac Club.
    She is survived by her son, David and his wife, Mary Lou, of Hampden; her sister, Ellen Davison, of Bridgeton; grandchildren, Melissa Boucher and her husband, Jesse, of Newton, MA, Linda Snow and her husband, Gary, of Shelburne, VT, and Michael Roberts of W Roxbury, MA; great-grandchildren, Samantha and Sydney Boucher, and Abigail and Aidan Snow; and several nieces and nephews. Rozilla was predeceased by her husband, Lewis; her parents; and her brother, Rutledge “Bud” Morton.
    A memorial service will be conducted 1 p.m., Saturday, November 16, 2013, at the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church, with Rev. Chad Poland officiating. Burial will be in the family lot in the Dover Cemetery. Memorial contributions may be made to the Miosac Club’s sponsored charity, GFWC Maine, “Newborns in Need”, c/o Anne Cress, PO Box 623, Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426, or the the Dover-Foxcroft Congregational Church, PO Box 328, Dover-Foxcroft, ME 04426. Condolences and memories may be expressed at www.laryfuneralhome.com.