Roberta Marshall, 93, off Kimball, died at Kimball health services on Thursday, December 5, 2024. Cremation has been held and memorial services will be held at 10:00 a.m. on Thursday, December 12, 2024, at the Calvary United Methodist Church in Bushnell with Pastor Lorri Kentner officiating, burial will be held in the Bushnell Cemetery. Friends may visit www.cantrellfh.com to view Roberta’s Tribute Wall and share condolences and stories with the family. Memorials may be given in her memory to the Calvary United Methodist Church in Bushnell. The services for Roberta have been entrusted to the Cantrell Funeral Home.
Roberta was born in St. Mary’s Kansas to George R. and Esther Harrison Stahl December 30, 1930 and grew up in Topeka. She graduated from Washburn Rural High School in 1949 and from Washburn University of Topeka in 1959.
Roberta began her library career in 1956 as a non-professional librarian and driver with the Topeka Public Library bookmobile department. In November 1961 she moved to Kansas City, Missouri where she was a non-professional librarian in their branch libraries until friends convinced her to go to Library School for a Master’s degree in Library Science and become a professional librarian. In June 1963 she moved to Denver Colorado and enrolled at Denver University in their Library Science department.
While in Denver she met the love of her life, Wayne Marshall and was married in the chapel on the DU campus June 12, 1964.
In September 1964 she became the children’s librarian at Denver Public Library’s Warren branch, and finally became a professional librarian after receiving her Masters from DU in 1965. After serving as a children’s librarian in the Denver Public Library she left to help her husband Wayne with his orchard business on the western slope of Colorado. Finding no library positions available she began her next career as a sales representative for DyChem International, selling industrial cleaning and maintenance products to a variety of customers throughout Western Colorado and Southeast Utah.
In 1983 Wayne and Roberta moved to Brighton Colorado, and later in 1997 moved further north to Bushnell, Nebraska. In 2016 they moved to Kimball, Nebraska where Wayne passed in 2017.
Roberta loved camping and traveling, she and Wayne traveled throughout the US and had trips into Canada and Mexico. She was an avid reader and also enjoyed sewing and altering her own clothing. She made sock dolls and the BEST angel food cakes that she sold at craft fairs in Kimball. She had an amazing memory, quick wit and made many friends throughout her life who will miss her dearly.
Roberta was preceded in death by her parents, sisters Marjorie Paschke, Betty Barlow and niece Theressa Barlow. Survivors include cousins Richard Stahl, Charlene Jacobs and Gerald Stahl, five nieces and nephews and all her close friends and neighbors.
