Ruth E Roberts

Ruth E. Roberts passed away on April 1, 2007, at age 84, after a brief illness. Born in Salina Kansas in 1922, she was the third deaf daughter of her deaf parents, Alexander and May Paxton Benoit. After graduating valedictorian from the Kansas State School for the Deaf in 1940, Ruth attended Gallaudet College in Washington D.C. After three years of college, she met and married Earl E. Roberts. After Earl's graduation, the two moved to Michigan, where Earl taught and coached at the Michigan School for the Deaf and Ruth raised three sons whom she often referred to as "her boys." When her youngest son was off to college, Ruth engaged in a twenty-year career that showcased her adeptness and talents in American Sign Language, her skills as a teacher, and her compassion for those struggling with severe language deficits. At the Lapeer State Home and Training School of Michigan, she taught survival language skills to deaf children who also had significant intellectual impairments. In an educational arena that at the time offered few resources or direction, Ruth compiled her own materials and strategies to teach her students. Later, she became a language therapist at the Crossroads Rehabilitation Center and Goodwill Industries in Indianapolis, Indiana, coaching and teaching survival skills to deaf adults who had little or no formalized language skills. Her expertise in this area was recognized nationwide. From her days in high school and throughout her life, Ruth's skill, proficiency, and talent in her first language, American Sign Language, blessed the lives of others through instruction and artistry. Upon retirement from her professional career, she served a full-time LDS mission in Virginia. Ruth joins Earl, her parents and sisters Ola Brown and Dora Laramie, who all preceded her in passing to the next level of eternal life. She leaves her "three boys" (and their spouses), Earl III (NellAnn) in Texas, Alex (Janet) in Colorado, and Norman (Linda) in Utah and her niece, Celia May Baldwin of Fremont California. She was the proud and thoughtful grandmother of ten grandchildren and nineteen great grandchildren. A memorial service for Ruth will be held on May 25, 2007, at the Utah Valley Deaf Ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints - 835 South 500 West, Provo - at 10:00 a.m. Family and friends are invited to attend.