By Stephanie Bradley
Within the walls of the Cave Creek Museum, relics and artifacts give dimension to the many stories from the near and distant past. Perhaps overlooked are the enthusiastic and generous volunteers who work feverishly all year long to create new exhibits and share them with eager visitors. As the museum’s 47th season approaches, I, as a volunteer for 20 years, have often thought about those early volunteers who pulled together to harness the interest and funds that brought the museum to fruition in 1970. One such person has her name and that of her husband affixed to the center auditorium of the museum, the first space that visitors enter. For years we at the museum have glibly identified it as the “Ansbaugh Auditorium”. But what do we know about the person for whom this important space named?
Roberta Ansbaugh
My interest deepened when a cache of photos was given to the museum. Among the old black and whites was a picture of a cheerful, tiny woman, standing comfortably in her kitchen: Roberta Ansbaugh.
I studied her photo for some time. How to learn about a stranger who passed away in 1992; one removed generationally and socially as well as temporally? Some long-time residents I talked to knew her as a pleasant lady, but they did not know her well. I am hoping a reader will say, “Oh, I remember Roberta, she did this or said that,” and offer some recollections; something small, something grand, that personalizes a woman who accomplished much and gave much to her adopted communities of Cave Creek and Carefree.
The pieces of information I have managed to gather about Roberta are scant, but revealing. My admiration grew with my research, and inspired me to write about her, leaving the reader’s and my own imagination to interpret her remarkable life.
Roberta’s generosity in funding part of the museum building was not new but a lifetime pattern of giving of herself and substantial resources. Her family was successful in business and life. They taught her self-reliance while giving her confidence to develop her mind and ambitions, and to accept a congenital disability, the nature of which was discretely omitted from records as was typical of the times. Roberta endured many procedures and surgeries to secure full strength. Despite her physical struggles, she graduated from Hillsdale College in Michigan in1938.
Among her papers was the following comment: “Throughout history, people with physical disabilities have been isolated, feared, shunned, pitied. All want independence [and be identified as] physically challenged rather than handicapped.”
At Hillsdale, she was voted “friendliest girl on campus” and “May Queen,” in a time when such recognitions were important and valuable, and undoubtedly added to her self-confidence. She had a deep and abiding affection for her alma mater, maintaining lifetime involvement with the small liberal arts school, culminating in her receiving an honorary degree in 1974. Passing the torch to the next generation, she established and funded scholarships to Hillsdale for Arizona students.
After college, she taught briefly before swiftly changing course, establishing her own weekly newspaper, for which she was writer, editor and publisher. Education remained uppermost in her mind however. She returned to teaching, coupling classroom with a journalism club, which she advised and for which she received formal accolades from her students. Wanting a hand in policy as well as application, she was elected to the local school board. The energy that emanates from this woman from the past resonates with the present.
Aware of being a woman of privilege, Roberta said, “I am happiest with people who don’t have much to give materially as they give more of themselves, teaching and sharing.” She did both.
When Roberta arrived in the foothills in1970, she quickly became involved not only with the museum-to-be, but also the library, Mothers Club and other groups. She even bought a mining claim! (We have no information as to its success.)
Her relationships are her legacy, forged by will and personality. She leaves us with this endearing and enduring thought of hers on friendship: “It is the shadow of the evening, which strengthens with the setting of the sun of life.”
The lively Cave Creek Museum hosts many activities, most at no charge, for the enrichment of young and old, thanks to the generosity of its many volunteers like Roberta Ansbaugh.
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