Louis Turner Roberts, 89, of Waterloo, Iowa died at home at Ridgeway Place on January 2, 2007. He was born at home at 501 Green St., Providence, Kentucky, on February 13, 1917. His father was Willie Head Roberts and his mother Leona Simmons Roberts. Louis was the grandson of Preston Roberts and Emma Gooch Roberts and Morris and Anna Simmons. Louis had an older brother, Jodie Graham and a sister Cordie Bell. Louis graduated from Providence High School in Providence, Kentucky in 1934. He was a graduate in the Caterpillar Tool and Die apprentice program in Peoria, Illinois.

Louis had known Ernestine Herron since they were young children. They were high school sweethearts who reunited a few years later while Ernestine was living in Nashville, Tennessee and Louis in Peoria. They eloped May 13, 1940 in Morganfield, Ky. (In May, 2005, they celebrated 65 years together.) Later, they moved to South Bend, Indiana where Louis worked as a toolmaker for Studebaker for 27 years. When the company closed, Louis worked for Selmer Band and AM General in Indiana.

Louis and “Teen” raised their two daughters, Dorothy Louise and Mary Rita in South Bend. The girls grew up, went to college and moved away. Dorothy and her husband Keith came back to South Bend from Philadelphia when it was clear that Hodgkin’s disease would soon end Dorothy’s life at age 35. She was buried in Olive Cemetery out on Kern Road, the same street where she grew up.

About ten years ago, Louis and Ernestine moved to Waterloo, to be near Rita and her family. They all had dinner together almost every Sunday. “Papaw” went to every concert, play, awards ceremony and graduation of Joanna and Joel all through their high school years. Louis maintained their own home in Waterloo until a couple years ago when Ernestine’s health encouraged them to move to assisted living in an apartment at Ridgeway Place in Waterloo. They built friendships there with other residents and with the loving and professional caregivers and staff.

“Pop” had a special love for his two sons-in-law, Mike Waggoner and Keith Yoder and Keith’s wife Marilyn and their sons Brent, Michael and Matthew. Mike was Pop’s “best buddy” this past year since Ernestine died, driving him to appointments, watching basketball and football together, making Pop’s favorite dinner of beans, cornbread and buttermilk. A few days before he died, he savored two helpings of Mike’s beans and cornbread dinner, the last meal he was really able to enjoy.

Louis is survived by his daughter Mary Rita and her husband Mike Waggoner of Waterloo, son-in-law Keith Yoder and his wife Marilyn of Portage, Michigan; granddaughter Joanna Louise Waggoner of Weslaco, Texas, grandson Joel Michael Waggoner of Cedar Falls, and grandson Matthew Yoder of Deerfield, Illinois.