OLD TOWN - Jean Frances Frellick Roberts died on September 17, 2021, just as the sun was rising and the birds were beginning to sing.
Born November 14, 1923 to Ralph S. and Ethel M. Frellick, Jean graduated high school in Brockton, Massachusetts, earned her undergraduate degree at Franklin College in Indiana, and then earned her Master of Arts in English at the University of Maine, where she met our father, Dodd Roberts. Jean taught high school English in Concord, Massachusetts, Danielson, Connecticut, and Columbia, Missouri before moving with Dodd to Pontiac, Michigan, where Alan, Kathryn, and Carol were born. In 1964, when Dodd accepted a professorship at the University of Maine, Jean moved to Orono, where she raised her family and spent the rest of her life.
Jean was a wife, mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, and friend. She was also a thinker, painter, baker, seamstress, gardener, and musician. She was unselfconsciously curious, and extraordinarily, relentlessly observant. When Jean was in her mid-sixties, she convinced one of Dodd’s doctoral students to take her on a hike from Roaring Brook to Chimney Pond at the base of Mt. Katahdin. The two were to return to Orono by 9 o’clock that night, but didn’t roll in until well after 11. When they came in the back door, a frantic Dodd bellowed, “What in the hell took you so long?!” The student said, “Dodd, when Jean looks at a flower, she really looks at a flower.”
Jean threw herself into whatever the three of us kids did, attending concerts, chaperoning exchange trips, and scorekeeping at outdoor track meets. When we girls started raking blueberries during summer vacations, Jean decided to try her hand at raking, too. Her buckets were (unsurprisingly) weed-free, but she was so slow that the field boss paid her off at the end of her first day and begged her to find another way to make money. When Carol began teaching at Leonard Middle School in Old Town, Jean volunteered in the school library, where her handshake, no-nonsense manner, knowledge, sense of humor, and compassion made her integral to the library staff for over twenty years. In 2014, the Maine Principals’ Association recognized her as one of two volunteers, statewide, to be honored for selfless dedication to the education of youth.
Jean was as loving as she was curious and adventurous. Her love for her children, grandchildren, and extended family was boundless. The friendship Dick and Annie King and she shared knitted our two families into one. The friendships she forged with Sharon Sasanow in 1964, with Lee and Mary Rhodes and with Paul and Cathleen Bauschatz in the early 1970’s, and with Peg Boone at the Leonard Middle School library, lasted for her lifetime. And to so many in her universe, Jean wrote letters. Oh, her letters.
Jean was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Dodd E. Roberts; her son, Alan E. Roberts; and her sister, Barbara (Frellick) Campbell. She is survived by her daughter, Carol (Roberts) Quimby, Carol’s husband, Gary, and their sons, Patrick and Benjamin; her daughter, Kathryn (Roberts) King, Kathryn’s husband, David, their son, Jeffrey, and their daughter, Kristina, and her husband, Daniel Merian; her brother, Robert S. (“Joe”) Frellick, Robert’s wife, Charlene, and their children, Steve, Lynn, Brian, and Dean, and their families; Barbara’s children, Pamela, Kenneth, and Douglas, and their families; her cousin, Francis Frellick, Francis’s wife, Ann, and their children, Paul, Marcia, and Ross, and their families; and her cousin, Ruth Dudley, Ruth’s husband, Dick, and their children, Scott and Peter, and their families.
Jean would be honored if you would donate in her name to a local food pantry. And in her memory, shake hands warmly with a stranger, spend time in the great outdoors, hang sheets on the clothesline and breathe in their sunshine, and love your family and friends. Condolences to the family may be expressed at Brookingssmith.com.
To order memorial trees or send flowers to the family in memory of Jean Roberts, please visit our flower store.
Born November 14, 1923 to Ralph S. and Ethel M. Frellick, Jean graduated high school in Brockton, Massachusetts, earned her undergraduate degree at Franklin College in Indiana, and then earned her Master of Arts in English at the University of Maine, where she met our father, Dodd Roberts. Jean taught high school English in Concord, Massachusetts, Danielson, Connecticut, and Columbia, Missouri before moving with Dodd to Pontiac, Michigan, where Alan, Kathryn, and Carol were born. In 1964, when Dodd accepted a professorship at the University of Maine, Jean moved to Orono, where she raised her family and spent the rest of her life.
Jean was a wife, mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, and friend. She was also a thinker, painter, baker, seamstress, gardener, and musician. She was unselfconsciously curious, and extraordinarily, relentlessly observant. When Jean was in her mid-sixties, she convinced one of Dodd’s doctoral students to take her on a hike from Roaring Brook to Chimney Pond at the base of Mt. Katahdin. The two were to return to Orono by 9 o’clock that night, but didn’t roll in until well after 11. When they came in the back door, a frantic Dodd bellowed, “What in the hell took you so long?!” The student said, “Dodd, when Jean looks at a flower, she really looks at a flower.”
Jean threw herself into whatever the three of us kids did, attending concerts, chaperoning exchange trips, and scorekeeping at outdoor track meets. When we girls started raking blueberries during summer vacations, Jean decided to try her hand at raking, too. Her buckets were (unsurprisingly) weed-free, but she was so slow that the field boss paid her off at the end of her first day and begged her to find another way to make money. When Carol began teaching at Leonard Middle School in Old Town, Jean volunteered in the school library, where her handshake, no-nonsense manner, knowledge, sense of humor, and compassion made her integral to the library staff for over twenty years. In 2014, the Maine Principals’ Association recognized her as one of two volunteers, statewide, to be honored for selfless dedication to the education of youth.
Jean was as loving as she was curious and adventurous. Her love for her children, grandchildren, and extended family was boundless. The friendship Dick and Annie King and she shared knitted our two families into one. The friendships she forged with Sharon Sasanow in 1964, with Lee and Mary Rhodes and with Paul and Cathleen Bauschatz in the early 1970’s, and with Peg Boone at the Leonard Middle School library, lasted for her lifetime. And to so many in her universe, Jean wrote letters. Oh, her letters.
Jean was predeceased by her parents; her husband, Dodd E. Roberts; her son, Alan E. Roberts; and her sister, Barbara (Frellick) Campbell. She is survived by her daughter, Carol (Roberts) Quimby, Carol’s husband, Gary, and their sons, Patrick and Benjamin; her daughter, Kathryn (Roberts) King, Kathryn’s husband, David, their son, Jeffrey, and their daughter, Kristina, and her husband, Daniel Merian; her brother, Robert S. (“Joe”) Frellick, Robert’s wife, Charlene, and their children, Steve, Lynn, Brian, and Dean, and their families; Barbara’s children, Pamela, Kenneth, and Douglas, and their families; her cousin, Francis Frellick, Francis’s wife, Ann, and their children, Paul, Marcia, and Ross, and their families; and her cousin, Ruth Dudley, Ruth’s husband, Dick, and their children, Scott and Peter, and their families.
Jean would be honored if you would donate in her name to a local food pantry. And in her memory, shake hands warmly with a stranger, spend time in the great outdoors, hang sheets on the clothesline and breathe in their sunshine, and love your family and friends. Condolences to the family may be expressed at Brookingssmith.com.
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