Roberts, Betty, 1923-2011

Betty Roberts was born in Arkansas City, Kansas on February 5, 1923. Her family relocated to Texas, where Roberts was raised, in the 1930s. She attended Texas Wesleyan College in Fort Worth for one year in 1940 before marrying Bill Rice in 1942. They moved to Oregon after World War II where Bill became a banker and Roberts raised their four children.

In 1955, Roberts enrolled in evening classes at Eastern Oregon College in La Grande before the family relocated to Portland. She graduated from Portland State College in 1958 with a Bachelor of Science degree in education. Roberts earned her Master’s degree in political science in 1962 from the University of Oregon and then her Juris Doctorate from Northwest School of Law in 1966. Between 1958 and 1967 she taught high school in the Portland area before taking a job teaching business law and political science at Mt. Hood Community College from 1967 until 1978. In 1959 she divorced Rice, and in 1960 married Frank Roberts whom she stayed married to until 1965. In 1968 she married fellow Representative, Keith D. Skelton.

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