Roberta Wellford was a charter member, secretary, and director of the Equal Suffrage League of Virginia and worked to push the organization of the Virginia League of Women Voters (VLWV) in the 1920s. She participated in the World War I war effort. She did work with the YMCA for troops in Paris and in Germany. As a member of the VLWV, she actively promoted public education in Virginia and supported the League of Nations and the World Court. Wellford was a member of the Daughters of the Confederacy, the Woman's Club, and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. She was active in the preservation of Virginia antiquities, the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, the Virginia Historical Society, and the Valentine Museum.
Wellford was born in 1873 Greenville, South Carolina and was the daughter of Maj. Philip Alexander Wellford C.S.A. and Belle Street Wellford. She died on December 28, 1956 in Richmond and is buried in Hollywood Cemetery. (Richmond Times Dispatch, 29 December 1956; Richmond News Leader, 28 December 1956)
From the guide to the The Roberta Wellford Collection of 1920s Women's Rights Printed Ephemera, 1915-1956, (Special Collections and Archives, James Branch Cabell Library, Virginia Commonwealth University)
