Roberta L. Gifford

Roberta Gifford, 89, of Grand Island, died Friday, May 26, 2017 at CHI St. Francis Medical Center. Memorial service will be 11:00 AM Wednesday, May 31, 2017 at Trinity Lutheran Church with Pastor Adam Snoberger officiating. Burial will follow in the Grand Island City Cemetery. At 10:00 AM there will be a time of gathering for friends and family. Memorials may be made to Trinity Lutheran Church general fund.

Roberta was born December 27, 1927, in the Ordnance Plant area west of Grand Island to Emil and Henrietta (Grim) Liedtke. She attended grade school at Hall County District 29, and her freshman and sophomore years of high school at Grand Island Senior High. She moved to Oregon, and graduated from high school at Springfield, OR in 1945.

She married Ross Gifford, and they later divorced. Roberta was a legal secretary. She worked for the League of Oregon Cities in Eugene, OR, from 1945 to 1951, for the law firm of Lane & Waterman in Davenport, IA from 1951 to 1956, and for the law firm of Stoel Rives LLP in Portland, OR, from 1956 until her retirement in 1993. She moved back to Grand Island in the fall of 1996.

Roberta was a member of Trinity Lutheran Church in Grand Island and Trinity LWML, a life member of the Portland Legal Secretaries Association, and was a former member of the Grand Island Unit of the League of Women Voters of Nebraska. She did volunteer work at the Grand Island Education Foundation, the Edith Abbott Memorial Library, Stuhr Museum, and Trinity Lutheran Church.

She is survived by her brother-in-law: Warren Hoover of Lincoln; nieces and nephews: Stacia (Don) Dreier of Grand Island, Stephanie (Paul) Scheffler of Longmont, CO, Barry Hoover of Lincoln, NE, Roland Bud Sems of Sun City, AZ, Melvin (Marlys) Sems of Grand Island, Alice Sems of Pearland, TX; and many grand and great grand nieces and nephews.

Roberta was preceded in death by her parents; sister: Lois Hoover; sister and husband: Maxine (Darrow) Sems; nephew: Raymond Sems; and niece: Carol Sems.