Janis A. (Bunker) Roberts, 88, widow of Gardner A. Roberts, of Haverhill and formerly of Groveland, died Sept. 9, after a lengthy illness with cancer.
She was the daughter of the late Virginia Adaline (Blaisdell) Bunker and Kenneth Elmer Bunker, born in Bradford and attended Bradford and Haverhill schools, graduating from Haverhill High School in 1945. A long time Groveland resident, she moved to Haverhill in 2003. Mainly a homemaker, she retired from the former Mitchell’s & Co. and had managed several departments over the years.
Family was her greatest delight and in her youth she and Gardner enjoyed hosting her six siblings and their spouses for Friday night cocktails and hors d’oeuvres as well as putting on a big to-do at Christmas for the entire family. She loved to travel and spent a month in Lisbon, Portugal, in the 1970s with childhood friend and artist, Ruth Boyce Milne, leaving her husband and the kids at home to raise a ruckus without her. In her later years she traveled extensively with Judy Prescott Morris and the group known as the CCCs. While living in Groveland, she served three terms as a trustee and was former secretary of the Langley-Adams Library and was active as a “friend” of the library for nine years. She was appointed first curator of the Groveland Historical Society and was a volunteer of the Groveland Council on Aging. A former member of the Groveland Congregational Church, she had been a member of the Savary Circle and Mother’s Club. She was active in Girl Scouting and served as Brownie leader in her younger years. While living in Haverhill she was a member of the Wednesday Morning Bowling League.
Her surviving family members include her daughter Kyle V. Roberts of Amesbury; son Gardner A. Roberts and wife Jane of Haverhill; siblings Phyllis M. Ducharme of Methuen, and Eugene G. Bunker of Haverhill; and many nieces and nephews. She was predeceased by siblings, Ruth Wilkinson, of Seabrook, N.H., Jessi Anastasi of Atkinson, N.H., Arlene Clark of Ipswich, and Harold Bunker, of Haverhill.
The family thanks all of those who cared for Janis during her long illness.
Funeral services will be Saturday morning, Sept. 19, in the Driscoll Funeral Home, 309 South Main St., Haverhill, at 11. Visiting hours will precede the service beginning at 9:. Interment will follow in Riverview Cemetery, Groveland. In lieu of flowers, contributions may be made to the Langley-Adams Library, 183 Main Street, Groveland, MA 01834.