Melvin Junior Roberts' Obituary
MELVIN JUNIOR ROBERTS LIFE SUMMARY by Loraine Durfee Roberts
Melvin was the 9th of 10 children born to Elmira Aurelia Allred and Melvin Henry Roberts. He only had one brother Burnett who was 16 years older. He was gone from home most of the time Mel remembered him. He would come back and took Mel shooting and other things. Two of his sisters died young and Mel never knew them. His oldest sister Iris, lived next door and was like a 2nd mother to him. Her oldest child was a boy just a few months younger than Mel and was a best friend to Mel. They lived next door.
They had a farm which Mel had many responsibilities for. They had 3 or 4 cows which he had to milk morning and night. He was responsible for keeping wood in the house and many other chores.
JOBS: Mel’s memories were that they were very poor, a lot because his father had become and alcoholic and drank away much of his income. Because of that Mel had many jobs working for neighbor farms, the first one when only 9 years old. He told me of drive a truck pulling a tractor and backing it into a very tight spot which really surprised his boss. He worked on a dairy farm and was very aware of sanitary conditions. He always had summer work for farmers and after school jobs in addition to his own farm.
SCOUTING: Mel talked much about Scout experiences. He said they were the most wealthy troupe round. His leader found money-making projects for them. One they planted a 3 acre plot in carrots and they all had to help water, weed, harvest them. They were sold to stores and the School District for the cafeterias. They also bagged saw dust at the saw mill and sold it to oil wells where they had a use for it. The Maeser Chapel had a large area in the basement that was rough and unfinished. They got permission to finish it into a Scout Room and the condition that they share it with Maeser 1st ward Troop. They had what he called elevators in the ceiling that would be raised up and down. There were 2 of them, so each ward had one. Their gear of tents, etc were stored there. He told of the Scout room got broken into and messed and some things taken. A pocket knife was left behind. Mel was asked if he recognized it. He thought he did and took it to school and had it in his hands in sight. One boy asked how he got his knife. Because of that Mel was able to tell the Principal and
SCOUT TRIPS: He went on several back packing trips up in the Hi Uinta’s. They had to eat most all the fish they caught and by the end of the trip they were SICK of fish.
DOG: Mel told of one special dog called Ring. He could tell that dog to out and bring in one specific cow and he would go cut it out from the rest and bring it ring. Relatives took delight in asking to have the dog do this whenever they came. LaVon was 6 years younger and Mel told how they dog watched and when LaVon toddled over to Iris’ house the dog would go along side and keep her out of the road and over to Iris’. When she started home the dog would go over and shepherd he home the same way. One day the dog was not there. He looked a lot for him. It was later when he was up on the hill he found him under a bush. He had just gone up there and died.
FRIENDS: The kids in Maeser were all in one class per grade. They have stayed very close friends. Mel was either appointed or elected Chief of Police. He had to patrol the halls and keep the big kids out of the little kids area. He said he was often given responsibilities like that.
OUR FIRST DATE: Maeser had its own school thru the 8th grade. He came down to Uintah High for 9th grade on. He was the Class Vice Present the 10th grade. (That is probably noticed him the most.) I asked him out to a Girls Day Dance. It was a group thing. Two of my friends also got dates. My Mom was going to take us to pick up the boys and take home at the end, but my Uncle Fahy got sick and needed to go to Salt Lake and Mom was only one with a car good enough to go so she did and my Uncle Aaron chauffeured us. After the dance we went to my house and we had food prepared. After we ate we gathered round our PLAYER PIANO and pumped and sang and laughed until Uncle Aaron came to see why he hadn’t called to wind up the party and go home. I wish I could see ‘re-run’ of that whole evening. Little did I know that 61 years later Mel and I would get back together and get married.
Mel never asked me out after that date. He told me that in June of 1955 he loaded his mother and sister into the little Chevrolet and moved them to Salt Lake. His dad had become so abusive from alcohol addiction that the situation had to change. I have felt compassion for his mother to divorce and leave her country home and move to Salt Lake and get a job to support her self and family left at home.
GUNS: Mel had a BB gun at a VERY young age and a 22 very young also. He told how the quail would sit on the pole fence, with some facing each side. He could line up and shoot hitting several birds with one stone. He loved to hike all over the Maeser area and shoot critters. One day he was walking along the bluff and shoot a critter and wanted to go cut off the tail for keeps and as he walked he thought it was a perfect place for a snake to lay resting in the sun, Just at the thought he heard a rattle and saw a small rattle snake just side of his head. He carefully positioned his gun and shoot, then took of running for home. He didn’t remember anything else until he was home.
SALT LAKE: Mel went to West High. They lived quite close to there. When he registered for classes, many that he wanted were already full and he had to take ROTC. He was the best one on the rifle teem. He competed in competitions and got excellent rating. The next quarter he didn’t take it. The Instructor was really disappointed. He collected many guns the rest of his life. He gave them all away when he could see his life was coming to a close.
MARRIAGE and FAMILY: Mel married Cuba Case in the Sale Lake Temple on his birthday the first year out of high school. He chose that day so he would never forget. They lived up in the area north of the Temple. She was originally from Roosevelt. Their first Child was Janet. Pennie, Jeff, Jordan who only lived 4 months, and Tammy.
JOBS: Mel got a job soon after they moved to Salt Lake at Ken Garff Auto. He washed cars, changed tires, etc. (He maybe had another one that I can’t remember.) He started working for Buehner Concrete which became his life’s work. He started at small jobs and worked up to a draftsman and pattern maker. He worked on many LDS temples, the Church Office building and many other buildings in Salt Lake. As we drove around he would point out buildings that he had done the facade. His favorite temple was the Oregon Temple. He took me there to see it. He also made a set of molds for the oxen under the baptismal fonts in temples. Many were made from his molds.
His company had a project doing the Mesa Governmental Complex. It was several buildings. Mel, Cuba and family moved to Mesa for about 2 years on that job. He said the business was going into computer mode and he didn’t like it. He had in enough years and so he retired.
He didn’t like having nothing to do so he got a bus driving job with Granite School District. His main route was up Emigration Canyon. It was difficult with little roads winding up little canyons with small turn-a-round places and snow in the winter. He did that for 13 years. He quite when they would not let him off for a Golf Tournament.
DIVORCE: He and Cuba divorced after 22 years of marriage.
MARRIAGE: Mel married Margaret Vance in 1990. She had 4 children. She had health problems and Mel was an intense care giver the last few years of her life. She died in 2014.
LORAINE: Mel and Loraine have a special friend, Clyde Martinsen, who had an email contact list of their classmates. When Loraine’s husband died he notified everyone. When Mel’s wife died he notified everyone. Loraine emailed Mel her condolences and said, “If you ever need to talk, feel free to call. I have been there and done that (meaning the care giving and losing a spouse.) Mel kept the email and about 4 months later he called me up on a Sunday night. We talked until his cell battery was going dead. He told me the reason he never asked me out again those many years ago was because he had moved to Salt Lake. He said we should go to lunch and talk again. I said okay. The next day I got an email saying it was too soon for him to do that as she had not been gone very long. I said okay. Well we finally did make a lunch date. We went to Ruth’s in Emigration canyon. We arrived at Lunch and talked til supper.
Well, the end result was we continued to date, we fell in love and were married February 21, 2015. (We had to wait until Margaret had been gone 1 year. He felt that was proper.)
We did make it to a 5 year anniversary but the last 2 ½ were after the cancer diagnosis. They first 2 ½ were full of fun, happiness, love and laughter. That had to last us threw the last ones that were full of pain and sickness. The love never failed but the fun and laughter diminished.
Mel passed away on April 14, 2020 at 5:44 am.
I will fill in many small tidbits as I think of them, but for now this will have to do.
All my Love!!!!! Loraine
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