print this page

Dorothy I. Roberson

Late Sunday evening, October 29, 2017, long-time Pennsylvania resident Dorothy I. Roberson, age 102, was called to heaven where she will be forever with her mother, father, two sisters, three brothers and all others who have gone before her.

Known as "Dordy" to her relatives and all her friends, she was the third of six children born to Laura and Harry Hepler at their farm near New Bethlehem. She proudly told people that she walked several miles "uphill through the snow both ways" to school each day and to church on Sunday. Dordy attended Redbank High School in New Bethlehem where she met her first husband, Howard Nophsker. Howard and Dorothy were married in 1936 and from that union had two sons, Gary Nophsker, who survives her in Texas, and Dennis Nophsker, who passed away at age 62. About seven years after her divorce from Howard, Dordy married William Don Roberson and although that union produced no children, Dordy was proud of her large secondary family: nine grandchildren, 15 great-grandchildren and 10 great-great-grandchildren!

Dordy was a hard worker all her life, hoeing corn and feeding the farm animals on her father's farm, maintaining beautiful homes, raising her family, and working a variety of jobs, including landlord, interior decorator, church assistant and secretary. She told people that because she loved to move, she had moved 34 times and had lived in Missouri, West Virginia, South Carolina, Washington D.C., and Florida, as well as 11 different towns in Pennsylvania. Her travels also took her around the world to both Spain and South Korea. Dorothy was of the Methodist faith and a former member of the Eastern Star. In her free time, she loved to play bridge and the card game OL with her family.

In 2015, Dordy received high honors and plaques during a celebration of her 100th birthday and speeches were made by a State Representative, a County Commissioner, her nephew and her son just before the Kittanning Mayor decreed that her birthday, September 1st, was "Dorothy Roberson Day in Kittanning." An oral history of her life can be found at www.armstronglibraries.org/ford-city under the Oral History Project link.

Dorothy's request was to be cremated and laid to rest near her mother's and father's graves in Lawn Haven Burial Estates, Worthington, PA. Dorothy's inurnment will take place in the spring of 2018 when her family gathers to hold a memorial and celebration of her wonderful life.

In lieu of flowers, the family asks that donations be made to the Rivercliff Terrace Annex Personal Care Home, 322 N. McKean St., Kittanning, PA 16201, where "Aunt Dordy" resided more than eight of her last years.

print this page