Roberta M. (Forsman) CANNELL

CANNELL, ZBORNIK, FORSMAN, SNYDER, AMBROSE

Posted By: Sarah Thorson Little (email)
Date: 6/7/2007 at 20:53:38

Roberta M. Cannell, the daughter of Gustav Adolph and Agnes (Zbornik) Forsman, was born August 12, 1920, in Banks Township, Fayette County, Iowa. A year later, the family moved to Clarion, Iowa, where Roberta’s father was employed by Wescott and Winks. Roberta attended kindergarten at Clarion, but the next year returned to Sumner, with the family. She then attended Sumner High School and graduated with the class of 1938. At an early age, she began playing the piano and played for her brother Darrell’s wedding when she was twelve years old. Later she played for many other weddings, funerals, and other functions, as well as for her own enjoyment and that of family and friends. She also played the clarinet in high school and with the Sumner city band. For many years, she sang with the Phillips Singers and the Community Singers in Bartlesville, Oklahoma and participated in the annual musical productions. Roberta was employed as a telephone operator in Sumner for several years, when all calls were completed manually, and was on the switchboard at the time of the bombing at Pearl Harbor in 1941. On June 14, 1944, she was united in marriage with Lt. Percy Dale Cannell of Camp Davis, North Carolina, at the United Brethren Church in Sumner by the Reverend David Thompson. She then accompanied her husband during his military service in Riverside, California; Tyler and Paris, Texas; and Alexandria, Louisiana.

Roberta was baptized on May 3, 1936, by the Reverend John Brunn and joined the United Brethren Church of Sumner. She and her husband joined the Methodist church in 1946. In subsequent years, she was a choir member, bell choir member, and was active in circle activities. She was a member of Chapter FH of PEO and of the Founder’s Society of University Lake School, Hartland, Wisconsin, and a past sponsor of the Chicago Chapter of the Jane Phillips Sorority. She was an avid sports enthusiast and enjoyed bowling in several different leagues. She particularly enjoyed attending high school volleyball and basketball games. Roberta had been in good health until she was admitted to Covenant Hospital in Waterloo, Iowa on January 12, 2006. A week later, she was transferred to Community Memorial Hospital in Sumner and subsequently to the Hillcrest Home in Sumner. Her death occurred Saturday, May 26, 2007, at the Hillcrest Home, after a long illness. She was eighty-six years old.

Roberta is survived by her husband, Percy Dale Cannell, of Sumner, Iowa; one daughter, Catherine (John B. II) Snyder of Oconomowoc, Wisconsin; one grandson, John B. Snyder III, of Columbia, Maryland; and many nieces, nephews, and other relatives and friends. She was preceded in death by a daughter, Susan Jean, who was stillborn; her parents; one sister, Anna LaVere Ambrose; and four brothers, twins, Peter Donald and James Darrell; Roger Adolph; and Herbert John Forsman.

Memorials may be made to the United Methodist Church of Sumner, the Union Methodist Church of rural Sumner, or to a charity of the donor’s choice.

Bartlesville Examiner-Enterprise
Bartlesville, OK
5 June 2007