Ruby Viola Holbrook Roberts (1903–1994)

Ruby Viola Holbrook Roberts (1903-1994) he was the fifth of 11 children, 10 girls and 1 boy, plus 2 older stepsisters and 1 older stepbrother. She was the sickly one as a child, but the longest survivor thus far. Her father died when she was 9. He was sick periodically and I think he had little effect on her life. She had great admiration for her mother and for her oldest stepsister and loved all her siblings. Growing up was pleasant; there wasn’t much money, but she had a warm, loving family. The city (Atlanta) was safe; a movie cost 5$, and the streetcar to Technical High School, where she learned to type and take dictation, also cost 5~. She always thought that there was plenty of time for English and History even in a technical high school, and she was disappointed when more was not offered. Her dream was to go to Agnes Scott College and become an English teacher, but she had to go to work immediately after high school. Only the youngest 4 siblings were able to go to college (Georgia College, Milledgeville). In her early 20s she became secretary to her future husband, a prominent physician in Atlanta.1,2 They married in December 1929, when she was 26 and he 51. This was a second marriage for him, with no children by the first. In September 1929, he had borrowed much money to invest in the stock market to “take care” of his alimony responsibility. The market crash occurred the next month. Their marriage lasted a short 11 years, ending in 1941 with his death, and in 1945 she linished paying off her husband’s debt. The marriage was a good but unusual one. All her life she referred to her husband as “Dr. Roberts.” The marriage yielded 3 boys. One was mentally retarded, and sending him away to a care facility was the hardest decision of her life, but, in my view, one of her many good decisions. Within a year of her husband’s death, their country house near Atlanta burned, and she and her 2 boys moved to the Woodcrest Avenue home in Atlanta where she lived for 47 years. In 1942 she began working again, this time as Executive Secretary for the Fulton County Medical Society. In 1946 she started her own business, Medical Placement and Mailing Service, which she sold 27 years later. She didn’t enjoy retirement. She always felt a bit guilty for not accomplishing more each day. When her energies became diminished over these last several years, she did not want to delav the inevitable. Sarah, her’ only surviving sister, and Stewart, her ftrst son, were her caretakers during these energylessyears. Who was this Ruby Viola Holbrook Roberts? She was accepting, caring, curious, friendly, generous, gracious, hardworking, honorable, independent, kind, likable, optimistic, pleasing, resourceful, straightforward, trusting, and unselftsh. In her makeup there was no Ruby Viola Holbrook Roberts

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THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF CARDIOLOGY@ VOLUME 74

element of arrogance, cynicism, deviousness, dishonesty, falseness, greed, or manipulativeness. She rarely complained. She accepted disappointments and heartaches as a part of life, and she rebounded from them quickly. She never expected things to be perfect and she felt fortunate to have the hand of cards that had been dealt to her. She never uttered curse words, smoked cigarettes, or drank alcohol, and she never judged harshly those who did. When I was a teenager she shared her business problems with me. She instilled a kind of conEdence in me from those many discussions by indicating in various ways that my opinions as a teenager were useful in some way to her. She was a self-reliant person, and, I believe, passed on these qualities to her 2 healthy sons at an early age. By age 11, Stewart and I were responsible for buying our clothes and doing our share around the house. She encouraged my going 850 miles away from home to college, knowing full well that I would never really come home again and that those friendly and meaningful conversations after dinner would essentially come to an end. She supported her sons’ endeavors extremely generously in light of her Enancial state, and never would accept any monetary gift from me, despite my attempts to make things a bit easier for her. She would never scold me on the occasions when several weeks would go by and I wouldn’t call. Whenever I apologized, the answer predictably was “The idea !” I have never subsequently encountered such a forgiving soul. I learned of her respect for honorableness when the manager of a movie theater called her to say that he had just caught me trying to sneak into the theater. Seeing her face when arriving home that night convinced me that I could not again hurt this near-pure lady with that type of conduct. I will miss her smiles, her laughs, her warmth, her eternal optimism. Simply being in her presence made me a better person, or at least gave me the desire to become a better person. I hope that in the new world she’s entered that she won’t work so hard, that she will learn more about play and take the time to play more. I hope that she will be able to linish all those books she started, and that she will rest in peace, knowing that she was such a loved woman.

William

Clifford

Roberts, MD Editor in Chief Baylor University Medical Center Dallas, Texas 75246 1. Roberts CS. Life and Writings of Stewart R. Roberts, M.D., Georgia’s First Heart Specialist. Spartanbug, South Carolina: Reprint Co. Publishers 1993: 138. 2. Roberts WC. A Son’s Book on his Father’s Father. Am J Cardiol1994;74:51%529.

NOVEMBER 15, 1994