Roberta Edna Ihde Donsbach, 90, of Denton, Texas, passed away peacefully on Friday, May 9. She had celebrated her 90th birthday on March 21, surrounded by family and friends. Known as "Robby," she was born on March 21, 1924 in Chicago, Illinois. She attended high school at the Luther Institute in Chicago, and worked as a student reporter for the Back of the Yards Journal in Chicago's famous stockyards district.

Robby attended the University of Valparaiso in Indiana in 1941-45. Upon graduating in 1945, she worked as a reporter for the Daily Journal in Tupelo, Mississippi. Her reporting activities included local coverage of wartime events in the summer of 1945 and notable personalities in the arts and public service. In 1947-49, Robby worked for the Detroit Lutheran newspaper, where she also reported on local and national events.

In 1949, Robby began working in public relations at the University of Valparaiso. That same year, Robby met her future husband, Alton Donsbach, while visiting a former college roommate at her family home in Baltimore, Maryland. Known as "Al," her future husband was finishing his master's studies in Writing, Speech and Drama at Johns Hopkins University, and was preparing to enter the Lutheran ministry after previously graduating from Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri.

In 1950, Robby and Al married at the University of Valparaiso. In 1950-53, the new couple lived in Oregon and Washington, where Al was pastor of a Lutheran church serving Oregon State University and later a chaplain in the U.S. Army serving at Fort Lewis in Washington and at an Army base in Korea.

In 1955, Robby and Al moved to Denton, Texas, where Al became pastor of St. Paul Lutheran Church and Robby led an active life as a mother, graduate student, community leader and nonprofit agency director. In the 1960s and 1970s, Robby was a board member of the Denton Chapter of the League of Women Voters. In 1974, she helped to found Denton's new elderly services program, known as the Services Program for Aging Needs (SPAN). Two years later, she was named director of SPAN, which continued to provide meals, transportation and other services to elderly citizens for many years.

Robby retired in 1990 and enjoyed many trips with her husband Al and others in her family throughout North America and Europe. After Al's passing in 2002, Robby continued her active life in nonprofit board work, charitable groups and church activities. Notably, when Robby decided in 2011 to relocate to an assisted living facility, she chose a Denton location (Lake Forest Village) of the Good Samaritan Society, which she had served as a board member beginning in the 1970s.

Most recently, Robby's active retirement included journalism work for the Good Samaritan Society's Lake Forest newsletter, close contact with her friends and family, and regular attendance at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Denton.

Robby was predeceased by her father Henry Charles Ihde in 1954, her mother Edna Bertha Morgenthaler Ihde in 1961, her brother Carlton Ihde in 1963, her daughter Caroline Grace Donsbach in 1974, her husband Alton Charles Donsbach in 2002 and her sister Lois Ihde Brunngraber in 2012.

Robby is survived by her sister Iris Ihde Frey of Westport, Connecticut; her children Margaret Donsbach Tomlinson of Independence, Oregon; Liz Donsbach of Albuquerque, New Mexico, and Paul Donsbach of Long Beach, California; and her grandchildren Phil Donsbach (a graduate of the University of California Irvine who is completing his graduate studies at the University of Lund in Sweden) and Stephanie Donsbach (a graduate of the University of Maryland, who will begin her graduate studies at the University of Utrecht in the Netherlands in the fall).

The family wishes to thank the Good Samaritan Society's Lake Forest Village for their loving care and attention as part of Robby's circle of family and friends.

A memorial service will be held on Tuesday, May 13, at 11:00 a.m. at St. Paul Lutheran Church, 703 N. Elm Street, Denton, TX 76201, (940) 387-1575, www.stplcdenton.org.

In lieu of flowers, the family suggests donations be made to St. Paul Lutheran Church or to the charity of your choice.