Biography

Was a mother and grandmother living on Long Island for many years. While raising her son in Rockville Centre on Long Island, she appeared in a few early TV shows, did a nightclub act and performed in summer theater.

Over the years she was seen or referenced in documentaries about Oscar Hammerstein II, George Abbott, and in the made for television movie, Broadway: The Golden Age, by the Legends Who Were There (2003).

With her distinctive soprano voice, Roberts originated the female lead role of Laurey in the 1943 Broadway production of Rodgers & Hammerstein's long-running "Oklahoma!", opposite Alfred Drake. She later originated roles in two short-lived Broadway musicals in 1945: "Marinka" and "Are You With It?" She succeeded Nanette Fabray in the hit 1947 musical, "High Button Shoes".

Late in her career, in 1998, she played the title character in a production of Driving Miss Daisy at Long Island's Hofstra University. She also appeared in "Legacy" with the San Jose Repertory in California. In 2012, she conducted workshops on singing and voice projection in her home.

Roberts returned to Broadway in the 2001 revival of "Follies" (the Stephen Sondheim and James Goldman musical about a reunion of former musical revue performers in an old Broadway theater slated for demolition) in the role of Heidi Schiller, winning good reviews again.

[on auditioning in 1943 for the role of Laurey in 'Oklahoma', using the text from 'Green Grow the Lilacs ] It was filled with vulgar language, and during the reading I just dropped the words because no eighteen-year-old farm girl would use those words. I never thought I would get the part but I did and, you know, none of that language was in it when it opened.