Victor Roberts

1922 - 2022

Victor Roberts was the epitome of those we call The Greatest Generation. Born October 6, 1922, Victor Roberts went home to see our Lord and Savior in the company of those he loved on Thursday, March 24, 2022 at the age of 99-1//2. He passed in his beautiful home, which he built with the love of his life the late Delores Talley Roberts who renovated, redesigned, and entertained family, friends, and neighbors indoors and out in their beautifully landscaped backyard. Victor was doing what he enjoyed the most when at home with family, snacking, and enjoying a great sporting event on television.
Victor is survived by his daughter Lori A. Roberts, sons Michael (Jeanne) Roberts Sr., Steven (Eva) Roberts Sr., and Mark W. Roberts, and grandchildren Michael (Stephanie) Roberts Jr., Jeanne (Jay) Johnson, Fallon Roberts, Meaghan (Je'Caryous) Johnson, Steven Roberts Jr., Christian (Maren Pratt) Roberts, and Darci (Ricardo Dixon) Roberts. Great-grandchildren Jay Johnson II, Jeanne Johnson IV, Je'Caryous Johnson II, August Johnson, Houston Johnson, Elek Roberts, Valentina Roberts, Giselia Roberts, and Michael Roberts III.
Victor is also survived by his sister Eddie June Forrest and brother-in-law Rev. William (Judy) Talley III, and scores of cousins, nephews, and nieces. He was preceded in death by his wife of 74 years, best friend and travelling companion, Delores Talley Roberts on December 30, 2020 and his sister Marion Roberts Douglass.
Victor was born on October 6, 1922 in West Helena, Arkansas to Edna Locke Roberts and Dr. Squire Victor Roberts MD. The family moved to St. Louis, where Dr. Roberts established his practice and one of the first physicians who had patients in the historic Homer G. Phillips Hospital. If you have ever traveled past the intersection of Page, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Drive, and Kingshighway Blvd. in midtown St. Louis, Mo., you could not have missed the 200,000 square foot building known as the Victor Roberts Building since the 1980s and which had been the old Sears & Roebuck and Co. department store built in 1928. In 1928, Victor was only six years old and lived with his parents just a short streetcar ride away from the building that would later bare his name, near the historic African American Ville neighborhood.
Victor could trace his roots through his mother's family to McNairy County (Selmer) Tennessee, where his grandparents and great-grandparents were farmers and in other business ventures. His father's family was from the area of West Point Mississippi, where his grandfather Wright Roberts was known to be a prominent farmer and community leader. So, it appears the entrepreneurial gene was deeply rooted in Victor's DNA, going back nearly two centuries in this country.
Victor was educated in the St. Louis Public Schools, attending Marshall Elementary and Sumner High School. He enrolled at Stowe Junior College in September 1939 the same month WWII began in Europe. A bright student, Victor made the Dean's List that year and also won a mixed doubles tennis tournament.
In 1940, Victor was in the first class to move to the new Stowe Teachers College building located at Kennerly and Pendleton Avenues. In September of 1941, he was one of the first class of men to be admitted to the four-year Stowe Teachers College, and now known as Harris-Stowe University. He would later be honored by the university being inducted into the select community of Distinguished Alumni of Harris-Stowe.
There, in February of 1942, he was initiated together with four friends, as a charter-member of the Beta Nu Chapter, Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity and selected as a member of the college's Pan-Hellenic Council. He has received numerous awards from his chapter and the national fraternity for his service to his community. His son Michael is also a life member of Kappa Alpha Psi, has the received the highest honor the Laurel Wreath, which the fraternity bestows only to its highest acknowledged successful members worldwide who demonstrate extra-meritorious achievements that are at least national, or international, in scope and effect. Victor was so proud that his sons Steven and Mark joined, and his grandsons followed in his footsteps as third generation Kappa men, Michael Jr and Steven Jr., and grandson Jay Johnson.
Along with his studies, Victor continued to pursue his enthusiasm for athletics in college, playing on the first Men's Varsity Basketball Team in 1941 and 1942. Part of his interest in sports was fostered by his father Dr. Roberts, who enjoyed various sporting events and would often take young Victor to the St. Louis Stars Negro League baseball games in the 1920s and '30s. Dr. Roberts was the team doctor and an investor with the team. Victor loved sitting on the bench with these great baseball players, several who became baseball legends: Cool Papa Bell, Willie Wells, and Mule Suttles.
With the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7th, 1941, America joined the war and like a majority of men of his generation, Victor Roberts was called to serve his country in January of 1943. He served with the 92nd Infantry (Buffalo) Division in the European Theater of Operations through December of 1945. At that time, the United States military was still segregated.
Recognizing his leadership abilities, Victor was promoted to Master Sergeant of his unit. He served with honor and distinction, being awarded three Bronze Battle Stars, an Outstanding Unit Citation, the Combat Infantry Badge, World War II Victory Medal, and Good Conduct Medal. He continued to serve during the Korean War in 1950 and 1951.
Between the wars, Victor returned to St. Louis and his studies where in the fall of 1946, he met a fellow student who was to be the love of his life. Delores was a fellow Sumner High School graduate who was attending Stowe Teachers College, now Harris-Stowe State University, where she received her Bachelor of Education degree. After many dates and family visits in early 1947, the couple became engaged and were married in June of 1947.
Over the years Delores and Victor were blessed with four loving children, the oldest Michael, then Steven, Mark, and Lori. In their early years together, the couple created a catering business since Delores was an excellent chef and Victor the ultimate mixologist.
Victor was also an executive with the United States Postal Service for 39 years as a distribution clerk, window clerk, supervisor of mails, station manager, personnel supervisor, and Incentive Awards Officer. He retired from the U.S. Postal Service in January of 1981 before joining his sons in the infancy of their family business. The company would become over the next four decades one of the leading minority owned businesses in the United States.
Victor was the Senior Vice President and Comptroller of this rapidly growing business empire known as the Roberts Companies. Together they would oversee the creation of shopping centers, television and radio stations, office buildings, a cellular telephone company, broadcast tower company, hotels, restaurants, housing-single family, townhouse and apartment developments, an engineering consulting company, the premiere national MBE//WBE consulting firm, a premium and advertising business, a pawn shop, the renovation and operation of the old American Theatre into the Roberts Orpheum Theatre in downtown St. Louis, a housing development in the Bahamas, and many more entrepreneurial pursuits. His sons' successes were because of his steady guiding hand and patience with his sons' creativity in business. Victor read and clipped all articles about his boys, which the family cherishes today.
Victor was also very proud to have his sons Michael and Steven elected to the St. Louis Board of Aldermen serving together, and his grandson Steven Jr.'s election as State Representative, then to the Missouri State Senate in November 2020, and was excited when told Steven was soon to announce a campaign for Congress.
Over nearly a century, Victor witnessed many amazing changes in America. He experienced and helped to overcome segregation and witnessed the advent of so many of the technological marvels we take for granted today. As an avid reader of at least three newspapers a day, Victor was totally consumed with current events on television, radio, or news outlets on the internet. He would converse with family, friends, and co-workers on all subjects like an expert, especially when it came to sports or jazz.
Victor loved music, especially Jazz. Several of his friends from Sumner High School, the oldest black high school west of the Mississippi River, where he graduated in 1939 became internationally renowned music artists. When many came home, they would visit Victor in his office at the Victor Roberts Building. To name a few, they were Clarke Terry, Wendel Marshall, Leroy Harris, and Jimmy Blanchard. In the 1930s, '40s, '50s, St. Louis was the hub of Jazz and Blues artists from everywhere. Victor through his friends enjoyed the acquaintances of great artists like his favorites Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Nat King Cole, Miles Davis and many more.
With everyone he met who also had an interest in Jazz, Victor could recall hundreds of Jazz tunes including who made them famous and sometime even remember the composers. Victor could always tell you which radio station had different jazz shows each night of the week.
With his friend the late Attorney Don Wolff, who Harris Stowe State University created the Donald Wolff Jazz Collection Institute, they would often talk endlessly about the different Jazz artists who Don would play on his weekly Saturday night Jazz program on KMOX Radio. Victor also donated many valuable jazz albums and other memorabilia to the Donald Wolff Jazz Library in the newly dedicated Emerson Building on the Harris-Stowe campus.
With his wife Delores, Victor and the family have been parishioners of All Saints Episcopal Church for over 60 years, the first Black Episcopal Church West of the Mississippi. Victor served on the Vestry, Men's Club, and Usher Boards as well as participating in many of the church's fundraising activities. His community service included serving on the Board of Directors of the St. Louis Philanthropic Organization and the St. Louis Heritage & Design Commission, and work with the YMCA and United Way of St. Louis.
What a great mark Victor Roberts has left on the St. Louis community through his works and accomplishments, and through the family he cherished. After nearly a century on this earth, he has now gone to be with his beloved wife and the heavenly reward of life everlasting.
Services: Visitation will be April 14th from 4:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. and April 15th from 9:00 a.m. - 10:00 a.m. at the Layne Renaissance Chapel, 7302 West Florissant Avenue, St. Louis, Missouri. The Celebration of Life begins at 10:00 a.m. In lieu of flowers, please contribute to the Delores and Victor Roberts Endowment Memorial Fund at the Episcopal Church of All Saints and Ascension, 4520 Lucas and Hunt Road, St. Louis, MO 63121.