Rockdale resident Gladys Roberts has always loved working outdoors.
She loves to get out in her front yard to tend the flower bed full of moonflowers with their large white flowers when blooming.
“I come out here early in the morning and in the evening for sure,” she said. “I love working in the yard.”
Her daughter Inez Tipp, who lives just down the street from her on Scarborough, said, “I think it is because she grew up working in those fields.”
“Yes, when I was a kid I picked cotton,” Gladys said of her upbringing in El Campo.
Her love of keeping her yard well manicured paid off as she was surprised earlier this month by having her yard named Yard of the Month for August by Rockdale Earth Day.
The honor surprised her. “I didn’t know what to think. I had never thought of getting yard of the month on my side of town,” she said. “But since I got it, everybody that knows me has been mowing their yards. I just can’t help but say “praise the Lord.”
At 90, Roberts is the oldest recipient of the award since Earth Day started handing out the honor two years ago, according to David Melton of the group.
Roberts has lived there on Scarborough for 41 years.
She left El Campo and lived with her late husband, Richard Lee Roberts, in Houston for a while.
But they left the big city life early on, choosing to settle on a farm in Alto.
She and Richard left Alto after he hurt one of his legs in an accident.
“I couldn’t keep it and he wasn’t able to work it either. We sold the farm and moved here,” she said. “My Aunt Betty (McDonald) lived here. She didn’t have any children and I loved her dearly. She helped us get our house.”
After her husband had been on crutches for over a year with his bad leg that doctors initially told him was going to have to be amputated, they went to see their daughter Beverly Copeland, who lived in Mississippi at the time.
“He told our daughter, ‘I don’t have a Christmas present except this’,” Roberts said.
He then let go of his crutches and walked on his leg, she said.
Her husband, who was a veteran of World War II, died 26 years ago.
“I had to learn to be on my own,” she said.
Well, kinda.
She has family nearby and she became a dog person.
She now has a Bichon poodle, Robare.
“I never cared for dogs, but my kids always did,” she said.
“We saw the dog with the dogcatcher and my youngest daughter called him and asked what he was going to do with it,” she said.
The dogcatcher told her he was going to put it down in three days if the owner didn’t show.
They made a deal that if the owner didn’t show up in that time, they would pick up the dog.
The owner never showed and so that day, 14 years ago, is when she became a dog person.
Now he is her constant companion, she said.
“He tells me what to do. He’s my baby,” she said. “He watches me work in the yard.”
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