Jane Roberts Appelbaum

JANE CECILIA ROBERTS APPELBAUM, was born September 9, 1923, in Storm Lake, Iowa, and died Wednesday, February 22, 2012, in Houston, Texas. She was the eldest of four children, born to Edmund Adelbert and Cecilia Rose (Boss) Roberts. In 1928, Jane moved with her parents to the town of Alma, in central Michigan, where she attended the Wright Avenue Grade School just two blocks from the Roberts' apartment in Wright Hotel-which was operated by her father. Jane is left-handed. It was her only problem in grade school, as some of the teachers insisted that she write with her right hand. She was an excellent student; she was involved in all activities and a good helper when anything needed to be done for school programs, town skits, parades, Campfire Girls, and summer camps.In junior High and high school, Jane learned acrobatics, worked on the school paper, became a member of the National Honor Society, played on her own piano, and rode her own horse. In high school, Jane and seven special friends, most of whom she had known since grade school, formed a private high school sorority, the "Octavians." The other girls were: Isabel Purdy, Fern Harris, Donna Hyde, Virginia Jackson, Helen McGee, Evelyn Moody, Mayrose Rademacher. They remained life-long friends. In the fall of 1941, Jane entered Stephens College in Columbia, Missouri, where she continued courses at the piano, her equestrian activities, and took a general course in English and Social Studies. In the fall, she met a University of Missouri student, Robert Herman Appelbaum. In September 1943, she transferred to De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, and in 1944 to Butler University in Indianapolis, Indiana. Jane became a member of Alpha Tau Chapter of the Delta Gamma Fraternity. She graduated from Butler in June of 1946. In 1946, Jane was married to Robert Herman Appelbaum in Alma.After their marriage, Jane and Bob moved to Rolla, Missouri, where Robert graduated from Missouri School of Mines. Jane had plenty to do, visiting with other vets wives, playing bridge, writing for the school paper, and working at the campus bookstore.Bob was employed by Shell Oil Company as a Geologist and they lived in New Mexico, Colorado, and Texas. Their son, Robert Boss Appelbaum was born in Corpus Christi in 1951. They later moved to Louisiana, Mississippi, and back to Houston, where they retired.Jane loved the moves, traveling in general, including all the states, Canada, Mexico and part of Europe. She enjoyed movies, museums and tours, and finding renowned restaurants was a specialty. Jane never forgot an old friend and was always finding new ones.She was preceded in death by her sister, Michaelyn (Mrs. J.P. Huestis), in June of 2010. Jane is survived by her husband of sixty-five years, Robert Herman Appelbaum; son, Robert Boss Appelbaum and his wife Kathleen Waldmeier Appelbaum, of Onalaska, Texas; granddaughters, Amanda and Lisa; sister, Nancy (Mrs. William Chamberlain); brother, Richard E. Roberts and his wife Rosemary; and several nieces and nephews.