Roberta D. (Danielson) Lair

I lift up my eyes to the mountains— where does my help come from? My help comes from the LORD, the Maker of heaven and earth.  Psalm 121

Bobbie Lair, servant of Christ, beloved wife, mother, grandmother, sister, sister-in-law, daughter, and friend passed peacefully into the loving arms of our Lord Jesus Christ in the early morning hours of September 13, 2022.  Born Roberta Jean Danielson in Pueblo, Colorado to Nels Eldred Danielson and Eleanor Marie Steen Danielson, the family moved north to Longmont, where little Bobbie started school.  Summer visits to her mother’s aunt Effie Herrington on the Stillwater River north of Absarokee and cousin Eck Keene at the 4K Ranch in Nye nurtured her early love of the northern Rockies. The Danielson family moved east to Omaha in 1948.  It was there that Mom met and later married her high school sweetheart, Gale, while they attended the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.  Go Big Red!  They were blessed with three children whom loved and now miss them dearly.

Douglas Dean was born in Nebraska, but as Gale’s Air Force jets took them south, Lisa Ann was born in Texas and Lynn Marie in Kansas. Military assignments for Dad, sometimes secret in their nature and length, steeled Mom’s skills as a formidable manager of home and family, protecting her little brood and braving the unknowns. After six years in the Air Force, the family moved north to the beautiful lakes and forests of Minnesota where our Danielson grandparents lived and MacNamara family soon joined us. Family gatherings became frequent and loud!  Dad worked long days downtown while the family thrived in the suburbs. Mom kept busy raising three very active children, including one with special needs requiring a lengthy drive each day to school and back.  As Dad’s career transferred the family, Mom became the relocation expert re-establishing roots.  She had the longest Christmas card list ever!  Mom kept in touch – school chums, Air Force friends, business colleagues who became family, neighbors and parishioners, and family (lots of distant relatives)!  Mom and Dad loved people and made friends wherever they went. Her correspondence list was nearly matched by the length of her prayer intentions.  Please God, may she continue to hear our prayer requests and bring them straight to you…so many knew she was praying for them.

With a healthy blend of Swedish, English and Scots-Irish blood, Mom possessed finest qualities of strength, courage, resiliency, kindness, empathy, generosity, hospitality, gratefulness, orderliness, and of course, fun!  Small as her family tree was, family was everything.  Holidays were for gathering, as were birthdays, anniversaries, baptisms, confirmations, graduations, engagements, weddings….and funerals. In-between, she was the most extraordinary hostess, always ready to set an extra place at the table or entertain Dad’s clients with little or no notice, host a luncheon or sit down for a game of bridge.  Her servant heart was first to step up and bring a meal, a hot loaf of bread, an angel food cake, a plate of cookies…if help was needed, food would help.  She unfailingly modeled a life of service to others, never asking for anything in return or recognition.

Mom was preceded in death by her parents and her loving husband of 65 years.  She is survived by her sister Shirley Ann MacNamara, beloved son Doug and favorite daughter-in-law Mary, loving daughter Lisa and favorite son-in-law Pat Beddow and dearest daughter Lynn, grandchildren Patrick (Kayla) Beddow, Christopher (Dora) Beddow, Devon (Fred) Prichard, Abby (Jake) Ahmann, Grant Lair, Andrew Lair (Jessica), George Beddow (Trinity) and great-grandchildren James and Claire Beddow, baby brother due in November, and sisters-in-law Darlene Mullen, Penny Malburg (Elvin), and Roseanna Lair.  She was the dearly loved aunt of her sister’s four children Bill, Dan, Jeanie, and Mike, their spouses and children whom visited Mom and Dad each summer for over forty years and during the holidays, as well as the many special Lair nieces and nephews, and her extended family in Kentucky, Colorado, California, and Sweden.

I remember Mama:  She had a keen interest in family history, loved to read, play the piano and sing (what grandchild did not have a road trip with Mama and Papa and a sing-a-long?), making ginger cookies and the best Swedish buns as taught by her grandmother Evelyn Yarberry Danielson, always, always starched and ironed pillowcases, a burger and malt lunch with Lynn at Veteran’s Park, all special needs children and their caregivers, vests and pockets, redheads, the color red, her sweet dear friends, cheering on her grandchildren in soccer, football, cross country, academics and band concerts, Festival of Nations, 4th of July parades and rodeos, the Red Lodge and Jackson Music Festivals, dancing with Dad, rainbows because she knew they were a sign from Dad, good country music, her beautiful flowering planters, bundling up the little ones after a hot breakfast and taking them up to Red Lodge Mountain, a little Crown Royal on the rocks on her birthday, nightly episodes of Murder She Wrote with Doug and Mary, phone calls, texts, emails and cards from family and friends, little dogs, well, all dogs, the Beartooth and the Crazy Mountains, traveling with Dad to Sweden, Europe, Australia, the Canadian Rockies, Kentucky, and to warmer climates in the winter, hugs from her kids and grandkids and great-grands, preparing feasts!  Mama, as we affectionately called her, simply loved life and loved the Lord. She was a beautiful soul from the inside out.

Our heartfelt thanks go out to Pastor Julie Gellert and the Melville Angels, Dr. Henry Pinango and the wonderful staffs at Livingston HealthCare,  St. Vincent HealthCare’s 3-Tower and Pioneer Medical Center.  In addition, the family is so grateful to the special staff of Hearts and Hands Hospice, Enhabit Home Health, devoted friends, and wonderful neighbors.  Thank you for the dignity of care, the outpouring of love and prayers for Mom’s healing and comfort.  The meals, visits, cards, calls, and helpful hands from so many of you made it possible for Mom to remain in familiar and serene surroundings and to pass peacefully at home, as well as offered the family great comfort and relief when we grew weary.  May the suffering Mom shared with Jesus be “the suffering that redeems; it is Christ’s love in the world; it exists only because people love one another, and because it exists, it begets more love.” (The Way of the Cross, Caryll Houselander)

A Celebration of Life will be held Tuesday October 4th, 2022 at 1 p.m. at the Melville Lutheran Church.

In lieu of flowers, please consider gifts to Melville Lutheran Church, Hearts and Hands Hospice, P.E.O. Chapter CD, or the charity of your choice.

Franzen-Davis Funeral Home and Crematory has been entrusted with arrangements.