JOHNIBEL ROBERTS

JACKSONVILLE, FLA. -- Johnibel Spencer Roberts passed into the afterlife and joined her Lord on Wednesday, July 31, 2013, during her 100th year. Service: A celebration of Johnibel's life will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday in the sanctuary of Broadway Baptist Church, 305 W. Broadway Ave., with family and friends gathering 9:30 to 10:30 a.m. Mrs. Roberts will be laid to rest at 3 p.m. Saturday in Oakwood Cemetery, 2124 S. Fifth St., Waco. Bearers of her casket will be Gerald Spencer Sr., Don Spencer, Robert Spencer, Mark Spencer, Gerald Spencer Jr., Charles Roger Spencer, Jim Kersey and Gene Frisbie. Born in Waco on March 15, 1913, Johnibel was the daughter of Roger and Oma Belle Bumgardner Spencer. She was a longtime resident of Fort Worth, granddaughter of an ordained Baptist minister, Thomas Bumgardner of Waco, and a 70-year member of Broadway Baptist Church. Johnibel attended Waco High School and Southwest Texas State University in San Marcos, where she earned a bachelor of science degree in science and geography in 1934. She was the graduating class valedictorian and the editor of the campus paper. Her class was the next graduating class after future President Lyndon B. Johnson's class. Upon graduation she began her teaching career in Dayton where she met and married Leslie Roy Coleman, later relocating to his family home in Columbia, S.C. She had two sons before moving back to live with her parents in Texas and divorcing. Johnibel taught in a two-room school in Dido with Vesta Winters, who was the other teacher and school principal. Each teacher was teaching the subjects that they knew best for the students with grades one through six in one room and grades seven through 12 in the other. They were lifelong friends after that teaching experience. During World War II, Johnibel stopped teaching and accepted a position working for the Consolidated Vultee Aircraft plant in Fort Worth. Since she had a minor degree in physics in addition to her education degree, the aircraft manufacturer sent her to Texas Christian University to take all of the radio and radar courses that were available before starting her aircraft career as an aerosystems engineer at Consolidated Aircraft, which later became Convair, then General Dynamics and is now Lockheed Martin. Johnibel was a, very rare at that time, female design engineer, providing electrical and electronic design work on the B-24, B-36, B-58, F-111 and finally the F-16 aircraft. Her installations of the cockpit "black boxes" are still flying today in the operational Air Force F-16 aircraft. She was a member of Aviation Weight and Stress Engineers Association. Johnibel worked there for 36 years, and then worked there as contract labor for an additional 13 years after her retirement until age 78. She became an avid ham "amateur" radio operator, operating her radio station from the attic of her home, under the call sign of W5PFU. Johnibel wanted Gerald and Don at ages 6 and 8 to become licensed ham radio operators right after World War II, but they never could master the Morse code. After her two sons were grown and she was nearing retirement, Johnibel married J.D. Roberts in 1966. Her life was dedicated to helping others. An article in the Granbury newspaper referred to her as "The Entertainer" because she enjoyed many years performing stand-up comedy, ventriloquism and puppetry. She was a talented artist and musician, playing the piano and accordion. She wrote poetry and was a member of International Society of Poets. Johnibel also enjoyed genealogy, travel and numerous hobbies. Her passion for genealogy led her to invent a manual, pre-computer, ancestor research machine called "Info-Sort." Johnibel spent her last years with her son and his family in Jacksonville, Fla., where she attended Lakewood Presbyterian Church and enjoyed its Wednesday night church dinners. She was a regular visitor at the San Jose Athletic field to watch her great-grandchildren play baseball and a member of the Mandarin Senior Center, enjoying the activities and outings. She celebrated her 98th, 99th and 100th birthdays with friends and family in Jacksonville. Her family appreciates the efforts expended by her son, Don, and especially her daughter-in-law, Sue, during the last years of Johnibel's life that were spent with them in Jacksonville. She was preceded in death by her parents; husband, J.D. Roberts; sister, Rubimae Torrance; and brother, Roger Q. Spencer Jr. Survivors: In addition to her sons and their wives, Gerald Roy Spencer Sr. and Bonnie of Houston and Don "S" Spencer and Sue of Jacksonville, Fla., Johnibel leaves her grandchildren, Robert Spencer of Nashville, Tenn., Mark Spencer of Jacksonville, Fla., Ashley Spencer of Houston and Gerald R. Spencer Jr., also of Houston; great-grandchildren, Callie, Reynolds, Andrew and Bennett Spencer, all of Nashville, Tenn., and Jackson and Jacob Spencer of Jacksonville, Fla.; and nieces and nephews, Lyn Kiel, Susan Torrance, Charles Roger Spencer, Sally Kersey and Patty Frisbie and their families. Robertson Mueller Harper Funerals & Cremations 1500 Eighth Ave., 817-924-4233 To send flowers or a memorial gift to the family of JOHNIBEL ROBERTS please visit our Sympathy Store.