Mary Roberta Ice

Mary Roberta Ice, age 93 of Fallbrook, Calif., passed away on Feb. 7 after a valiant, brief battle with double pneumonia. She was born in Musselshell, Mont. to John and Phoebe McIntire on May 18, 1919 and was one of three sisters.

She graduated from Roundup High School in 1937, followed by graduation from Montana State College in 1941 with a Bachelor's degree in secretarial services. She entered the Woman's Army Corp in 1943 and rose to the rank of captain before her discharge in 1946. While in WAC, she served as secretary to a general in post-WWII Germany during the Marshall rebuilding program.

She married her one and only love, Douglas C. Ice, in 1948 and worked as a receptionist/secretary to a dentist in Santa Ana for several years before becoming a full-time mother after the birth of her first son. Outside of her family, her hobbies were reading, sewing and doing crossword puzzles of which she was a whiz, completing a difficult newspaper puzzle every day right up to her recent illness. She was an accomplished seamstress and dressmaker for many years as well.

Roberta resided in Fullerton for 40 years and was the loving wife of her husband and mother to two children until moving to Fallbrook in 1990 after the death of her husband. This allowed her to live next door to her oldest son and care for her two grandchildren as they grew up. She was the consummate mother and grandmother taking care of everyone in her family with loving care and lived to see both grandchildren graduate from college.

She was preceded in death by her youngest son, Rodger Ice; her husband Douglas Ice, and a sister, Elna Jackson. She is survived by her son Randolph Ice of Fallbrook; two grandchildren, Andrew Ice of Fallbrook and Lindsey Ice of Point Loma; sister Helen Huseby of St. Paul, Minn.; and four nieces and nephews living in Montana.

Graveside services will be held at Loma Vista Cemetery, 701 E. Bastanchury Road in Fullerton with full military honors on Wednesday, Feb. 13 at noon.