Obituary

Roy Raymond Roberts, M.D., 88, of Halfway passed away Wednesday, April 8, 2009. Funeral services will be at 2 p.m. Wednesday, April 15, 2009, at First Baptist Church of Halfway with Dick Hatfield and Dr. Max Browning officiating. Burial will follow in Plainview Memorial Park under the direction of Kornerstone Funeral Directors of Plainview. A visitation for family and friends will be held Tuesday, April 14, 2009, from 6-8 p.m. at the funeral home. Dr. Roberts was born on November 11, 1920, in Ned, Pa., to Sherl L. and Sara Bertha Roberts. At nine months of age his family moved to Cameron, W. Va., where they resided until he was four years old. They then moved to Moundsville, W. Va., where he received his primary and secondary education. In 1938 he graduated from Moundsville High School, salutatorian in a class of 188. He received his premedical preparation at Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, Pa., where he graduated with a Bachelor of Science Degree. He next enrolled in medical school at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. He graduated from that institution with a Doctorate in Medicine on Sept. 25, 1944. Dr. Roberts served a rotating internship and one year of surgical residency at the Polyclinic Hospital in Harrisburg, Pa. He entered the U.S. Army Medical Corps in July 1946 and was assigned to the surgical service at Brooke General Hospital in San Antonio. He served there two years and was honorably discharged in 1948 with the rank of Captain. In July 1949 he began a residency in Urology at Aspinwall Hospital in Pittsburgh, Pa. which he completed on June 30, 1952. Dr. Roberts moved to Plainview to head the Department of Urology at the Plainview Hospital and Clinic Foundation. He served in that capacity until his retirement from what is now Covenant Hospital on June 30, 1988. In September of 1965, Doctors Williams, Roberts, Long and Desouza opened the Plainview Medical Building which eventually housed eight surgical specialists, a radiologist, an internist, two pediatricians, two dentists, a laboratory, a pharmacy and business office. Dr. Roberts was a fifty-year member of the Hale, Floyd and Briscoe County Medical Society, the Texas Medical Association, American Medical Association, a fellow of the American College of Surgeons and a Diplomat of the American Board of Urology. He was also a fifty-year member of Robert Burns Lodge #464 and a lifetime member of the United Methodist Church. After his retirement Dr. Roberts was engaged in farming operations in the Halfway Community near Plainview. In 2004 he was awarded an honorary Doctorate by his Alma Mater, Waynesburg College in Waynesburg, Pennsylvania. Dr. Roberts was married to "Mimi" Gladys Ellen Roberts for more than fifty years. She preceded him in death in November 1996. An only son, Philip Kenneth Roberts, died in an auto accident in December 1999. In May of 1998 he married Jean Kemp Heye. Survivors include his wife, Jean Roberts; daughter-in-law, Sharon Roberts of Wichita Falls, Texas; one granddaughter, Rebecca Roberts of Wichita Falls; step-children, John and Kathy Dunbabbin of Hermosa Beach, Calif., and Lawson and Abigail Lowe of Riverside, Calif.; one step-grandson, Rand Heye of Dallas; sister-in-law, Pauline Roberts of Woodbridge, Calif.; nephews Jim Roberts of San Jose, Calif. and Robert Davis of Tampa Bay, Fla.; one niece, Barbara Kern of Harrisburg, Pa.; 12 cousins; and special friends, Earle and Faye McDonough of Plainview.