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Roberta Lee Parsons
<p>Roberta Lee “Bobbe” Parsons<br /> <br /> Roberta Lee Parsons, 98, passed away in Albuquerque, New Mexico Tuesday morning, January 12, 2021.<br /> <br /> Roberta Lee Murfin was born in 1922 to Robert and Genevieve Murfin, both teachers in the small plains town of Cope, Colorado. Growing up, “Bobbe” rode horses, fished and learned to shoot a rifle. She was a role model to younger siblings Jo Ann and Don. They learned hard lessons about life and nature, enduring the dust bowl, grasshopper plagues, drought and their father’s cigars.<br /> <br /> At DU, Bobbe met Bill Parsons, who was studying to be a pilot, and decided to become a pilot herself. They graduated together and were married in 1947. After a brief stint at commercial flying both took up jobs teaching in the Denver Public Schools.<br /> <br /> Bobbe started teaching third grade at Bradley Elementary in 1948, and in 1965 she was named one of the DPS Teachers of the Year by the Colorado Education Association which noted her ability to motivate youngsters to read. Dozens of student’s projects and investigations scattered around her classroom reflected kids’ enthusiasm, and she took calls from students expressing their gratitude to her long after retirement.<br /> <br /> She found inspiration from friends and the novels of James Michener, and became an enthusiastic traveler, visiting Fiji, Bora Bora, Australia, Samoa, New Zealand, and multiple times, Hawaii. Two of her favorite books were the autobiographies “Out of Africa”, by Isak Dinesen and “West With the Night”, by Beryl Markham.<br /> <br /> When Bobbe and Bill retired from DPS, they travelled together, to Mexico, England, Ireland and Hawaii. Bill suffered a series of strokes in the 80s Bobbe cared for him at their home in Denver until he died in 2003.<br /> <br /> Bobbe moved to an independent living community in Sun City West where she would be close to sister Jo Ann, by then a retired teacher, and brother Don, a retired superintendent of schools in Bakersfield. She learned to play golf, and she hosted a weekly current events group for years where seniors read articles and listened to guest speakers that Bobbe brought in. She spent her last year in a senior facility in Albuquerque until the winter of 2020 when the facility imposed a lock-down. She died like so many other seniors this year, from complications of the Coronavirus.<br /> <br /> Bobbe is survived by brother, Don and sister Jo Ann; son, Robert and his wife Mimi and their children Luke and Mollie; and son William, his wife Yvonne, and their daughter Sarah.</p>October 10, 1922 - January 12, 202110/10/192201/12/2021
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