Lynn D. Roberson

1941 - 2025

Lynn D. Roberson

Apr 3, 1941 - Aug 8, 2025

Lynn Roberson died in St. Francis Hospital on August 8, 2025 from complications

associated with advanced ovarian cancer.

Born on the eve of the Second World War in Queens, New York, Lynn was a natural red head, who liked to wear red, so she would always be noticed. She was brought up to value thrift, practicality, and independence by her parents, Joseph and Carolyn Marshall. Her father, a senior engineer working for the city, helped design and build the Brooklyn Battery tunnel. Lynn and her older sister Jean got to ride in the first car to travel through the tunnel in 1950, only a year before their father died suddenly. Her mother (originally Carolina Montouri) was born in Positano, Italy, and arrived in the United States at Ellis Island, where Lynn and Jean were able to track down their mother's immigration records. Lynn was equally proud of both her New York roots and her Italian heritage, visiting Italy five times and Positano twice to meet with distant cousins.

Lynn graduated from Andrew Jackson High School, in Cambria Heights, and received a scholarship to attend City College of New York; but her mother, worrying about late-night commutes to Manhattan, convinced her to go to Queens College, where she joined the Theta Nu Sorority. Lynn always loved a good party, and red wine. She loved to dance and to make new friends. She then moved to Rochester and worked as a librarian, as had her mother. Her first two children, Paul and Gabrielle, were born in Rochester, and her third, Georgia, in Pittsburgh. The family was transferred to Houston and then to London and back to Houston, where Lynn, following a divorce, took on the responsibility of rearing three children on her own.

Lynn began her career in the oil industry as a secretary and steadily, tirelessly, worked her way up to become an oil pipeline scheduler. A business associate once remarked that she sounded much taller on the phone. In 1985, Citgo bought out the company she was with, and she was relocated from Victoria, Texas to Tulsa. After working for twenty years with Citgo, and nearing retirement, her daughter Gabrielle introduced her to Jerry Roberson, a Kansas native. They married in January 2004 and settled into a comfortable and welcoming home, where they enjoyed many evenings of cards, dominoes, and wine with their neighbors; Jerry passed in May 2021.

Lynn loved to travel, and she was happy to recount her many trips, 27 countries and 3 continents, with her family and friends. She was fun and adventurous, and she moved impatiently fast. One of her traveling companions believed Lynn could walk from the Rock of Gibraltar to the Russian border in a week without missing anything in between. And so many things, small and big, she brought back and filled her home with the mementos of her travels. She would, undoubtedly, still be traveling were it not for the cruel consequences of cancer.

Lynn is survived by her sister Jean and her brother-in-law Joseph Cammeyer; her three children Paul, Gabrielle, and Georgia; her five grandchildren Reagan, Oliver, Madison, Rosalind, and Kennedy; and her great-granddaughter Vivienne.

There will be a Celebration of Life service on Friday, August 22, 2025, at 12 p.m., at Fitzgerald Southwood Colonial Chapel, 3612 E. 91st Street South, Tulsa, Okla. 74137. The family requests that everyone wear something colorful. There will be a lunch following the service at the Family Center.

In lieu of flowers, please make a donation to your favorite charity in Lynn's name.

www.fitzgeraldfuneralservice.com