Roberta A. Anderson

Roberta Alice Anderson passed away in Bozeman on Saturday, March 29, 2008. She was born September 29, 1919 in Bozeman to Dr. Robert G. Anderson, a Belgrade dentist, and Alice (Arnold) Anderson. Her maternal grandparents were William H. and Ellen Arnold, pioneer residents of the Gallatin Valley, who homesteaded northwest of Bozeman near Springhill Road from 1864 to 1920. After the death of her father, Roberta and her mother moved to Long Beach, California. She attended the St. Anthony School from kindergarten through high school and, at the age of sixteen, enrolled at UCLA. In 1940, she received her B.A. summa cum laude and Phi Beta societies Alpha Mu Gamma, Pi Delta Phi, and Sigma Delta Pi, and received a medal from the government of France for a scholarship in French. After a year of graduate study leading to the California General Secondary Teaching Credential, she taught French, Spanish, and Social Studies at Inglewood (Calif.) High School. During World War II Roberta worked as a cryptanalyst and translator of French, Spanish, and German in the Technical Laboratory of the FBI in Washington, D.C. At the end of the war, she applied to the Foreign Service of the Department of State and was assigned to the American Embassy in Habana, Cuba. She subsequently served at embassies in San Jose, Madrid, Paris, Buenos Aires, Helsinki, and Bonn. Roberta considered her four years in Paris as secretarial assistant to the U.S. Ambassador to NATO as the highlight of her career. After retirement from government service in 1974, she remained in Washington, D.C. until 1976 in order to participate in the activities and ceremonies of the Bicentennial there and in Philadelphia and Boston. She returned to Bozeman to live in 1977. She was a member of Holy Rosary Catholic Church, the Sons and Daughters of pioneers, the Gallatin County Historical Society, the National Association of Retired Federal Employees and, for a number of years, Befrienders. She was always interested in foreign languages and cultures, international affairs and travel, and family history. Roberta was preceded in death by her parents and an infant sister, Mary Ellen. She is survived by a special cousin, Julie Anne Duncan, many other cousins, friends, and classmates in California, Montana, and other states, and in Bozeman by special friends Gonnie Siebel, Troy Bertelsen, and Heidi Wilkins. A graveside funeral service will be held on Friday, April 4, 2008, at 11:00 am, at Sunset Hills Cemetery. Family and friends are invited to meet at Dahl Funeral Chapel at 10:45 am to process to the cemetery. Condolences to the family may be made online at www.dahlcares.com