- Date Of Birth: January 28, 1938
- Date Of Death: July 30, 2019
- State: Montana
Roberta Joyce (Motichka) Elgin (81) passed away peacefully “into the arms of her Lord and Savior Jesus Christ” surrounded by her family on July 30th, 2019 from natural causes related to dementia.
Roberta was born on January 28th, 1938 to Joseph Motichka and Mary (Feirstein) Motichka, the youngest of seven children. She was born near the family homestead that is located close to what is now Glacier International Airport. She was delivered at the country doctor’s home nearby. As a child she was raised tending to the animals, gardening, and working on the farm. This childhood gave her a strong work ethic, values and morals, and a love for animals and nature of all kinds.
Through 8th Grade, she attended a small country school with her siblings. One of many fond memories Roberta had was travelling occasionally to and from school with her dad by horse. From there she attended Flathead High School where she made many new friends, excelled in academics, loved home economics, and was a baton twirler on the drill team. While at Flathead, Roberta met and later married her high school sweetheart and love of her life, Donald Elgin. After graduation, Donald and Roberta were married on June 30, 1956, the beginning of a life-long marriage and family.
They had three boys: Dan, Dave, and Donnie. Family activities included camping, fishing, hunting, riding motorcycles, getting wood, boating, playing sports, sledding, snow-mobiling, ice skating, and enjoying the outdoors. “Mom was right along with us just as one of the boys.”
While raising the family, Roberta took on part-time work such as cutting tree boughs for wreath making, picking and selling huckleberries, and working at her uncle’s meat processing plant. Later, she sold Avon before taking permanent work at Eddy’s Bakery where she worked for 26 years.
