Roberta Jean Lunsford passed away peacefully in her home on the morning of June 28, 2021. She was well cared for by her loved ones. She was born on March 28, 1940. Roberta’s spirit, talents in singing and music, and beauty will never be forgotten. She was a loving mother and grandmother to her two daughters and granddaughter, and a friend to many that were able to share her beautiful life with her.
Roberta is survived by her daughter Veronika J. Brozek, granddaughter Nika K. Brozek-Weight, son-in-law Alihi Weight, daughter Diana B. Brozek, significant other of 15+ years Eric L. Marsh, and brothers John R. Lawson, and William Lawson. Her parents were Alice Virginia Lawson and Robert Lawson.
Roberta was born in Elgin, Illinois and her family moved to Somerset, Wisconsin when she was a child. She started sewing when she was young and made beautiful gowns, dresses, shirts, and clothes. She taught her daughters how to sew and made many clothes for them. She was the Pea Soup Queen and runner up Snowball Queen in her teens. She attended the University of Wisconsin, Madison and majored in Music. She was a member of the Sorority Tri Delta. She took classes in many other institutions such as Harvard University and the Cambridge Center for Adult Education. She attended band camp in San Diego and her daughters stayed with her and had a wonderful time. Roberta taught her daughters how to play the piano and sew and taught music and singing to her granddaughter Nika.
She was exceptionally intelligent, creative, and talented in music and singing. Roberta was a schoolteacher, music teacher, and a special needs teacher. She also worked at Perkins School for the Blind, and Pearson in Boston. She loved jewelry and made many beautiful pendants, necklaces, bracelets, earrings, and rings out of silver and stones. She also made pendants and jewelry out of watches that she took apart. She always wore gorgeous jewelry every day and especially liked American Indian jewelry.
She was always singing, and playing the piano, keyboard, and clarinet. She adored Veronika’s daughter Nika and would take care of her at least once a week. She was very proud of Nika and loved to bring her books and small gifts each time she visited. Roberta was a long time member of the Arlington-Belmont Chorale. She was a member of many music groups and performed in numerous indoor and outdoor concerts and gigs. She performed in Arlington, Belmont, Cambridge, Winchester, New Orleans, North Carolina, San Francisco, and many other places. Roberta had perfect pitch and a lovely voice. She sang, played the clarinet, played piano, a keyboard, and saxophone. In college, she learned how to play every instrument available. She loved all types of music and especially playing classical piano, jazz and blue grass on her clarinet. She improvised a lot and was able to transpose all types of music.
She visited her daughter Diana in San Francisco many times and they had a yearly tradition of going to the Cliff House every Thanksgiving. She had a lovely time there and liked to walk along Fisherman’s Wharf and the Marina, and to go on ferry tours to Alcatraz. She loved going for nice walks along Spy Pond and to the ocean. She shared many joyous times with her daughter Veronika, son-in-law Alihi, and granddaughter Nika and went to Cape Cod, Manchester by the Sea, to visit the Newport Mansions, and to lots of beautiful outings, concerts, museums, and restaurants. She shared over 15 lovely years with her significant other Eric L. Marsh. They performed together in shows, traveled, went to concerts, nice restaurants, and had joyous times and laughed a lot together.
Roberta lived a beautiful and full life and will be greatly missed and will never be forgotten. She made the lives of those around her richer in so many ways. Her family and loved ones and have so many loving and wonderful memories that live on through them. She was exceptionally beautiful, loving, joyous, creative, strong, and determined. She endured cancer in her final years and was a true hero.
Please celebrate her life with us at her Visitation at DeVito Funeral Home on Friday, July 2, 2021, at 2:00 pm - 5:00 pm at 1145 Massachusetts Avenue, Arlington, MA, 02476. 781-643-5610. www.devitofuneralhomes.com. Relatives and friends are all invited to visit and share loving memories of Roberta.