In Memory of Margaret Roberts

Obituary

Margaret Roberts
April 8, 1947- June 8, 2018

Margaret Elizabeth Murray Roberts lived. Her life began in Herkimer, New York, born of World War II veteran Grosvenor Murray and Icelandic immigrant Asta Olafsdottir. Margie fully began to live through the manifestations of her passions for music, sports, the outdoors, and proving that girls could do everything boys could. By the time she was in high school, she was a known vocalist and French horn player, and also played the piano, which she never really enjoyed but her mother insisted it was what proper young girls did. She was accepted at the Eastman School of Music for both voice and French horn. Forced to choose one, she elected to focus on voice. Her favorite piece to perform was Puccini’s Un bel di Vedremo.

Margie met the love of her life, Laurence, while conducting a choir at the Unitarian Church in Barneveld, NY. While raising two young girls, she completed her Master’s Degree in Business Administration from SUNY Binghamton. By then she had also discovered her other passions: the Maine coast, tennis, chocolate, single malt scotch, and helping others. She lived out those passions through time with her family and friends, paddling in the Adirondacks, gazing at the Atlantic, hitting tennis balls at Paragon, swinging clubs on the golf course, and through her tireless work as the Co-President of Planned Parenthood Mohawk-Hudson, where, despite threats to her life, she helped countless women and men for nearly thirty years

Bright, fearless, indefatigable, stubborn, and cool under pressure would be proper superlatives for Margie, as well as loving, giving and eager to laugh. She lived her life on her terms and by her own set of rules, and always with music playing in the house.

She will forever be missed by her husband Laurence Roberts, her daughter Daria Roberts Helmer and husband Adam, daughter Sonja Roberts Cutter and husband Jamison, her brother, Thomas (Oli) Murray, sister-in-law Bronwyn Davis and husband Jim, her unofficially adopted daughter Vika Pleshakova and husband Ben, and grandchildren Alec, Maja, Ainsley, Maxwell and Mia.

Calling hours will he held on Thursday, June 14th between 4:00-7:00 pm at Friedel, Williams & Edmunds Funeral and Cremation Services, 13 Oxford Road, New Hartford, NY.

Services will be held at 1:00 pm on Friday, June 15th at The Unitarian Church of Barneveld, 100 Park Ave, Barneveld, NY.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to Planned Parenthood Mohawk-Hudson or Hospice and Palliative Care, Inc