Frank L. Roberts

Frank Livezey Roberts (December 28, 1915 – October 31, 1993) was an American politician who served as first gentleman of Oregon from 1991 to 1993 as husband of Governor Barbara Roberts. A member of the Democratic Party, Roberts served in both houses of the Oregon Legislative Assembly. He served two terms in the Oregon House of Representatives and most of five terms in the Oregon Senate before resigning due to poor health. Roberts was married three times, including to Barbara Roberts, who was the first woman to serve as Governor of Oregon, and to Betty Roberts, who was the first woman to serve as a justice of the Oregon Supreme Court. Roberts is the first man to serve as first gentleman of Oregon.

Early life and career Roberts was born in Boise, Idaho, in 1915 to Walter Scott and Mary Livezey Roberts. He received a bachelor's degree from Pacific University in Forest Grove, Oregon in 1938. In 1943, he married Mary Louise Charleson. Later that year, he earned a master's degree from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. In 1946, he was hired as a speech professor at Vanport College (later renamed Portland State University). He earned a doctorate from Stanford University in 1954.

Early political career In 1960, Roberts was elected chairman of the Multnomah County Democratic Party. He ran unsuccessfully for the Oregon State Senate in 1962, but was successful in his second attempt at elective office, winning a seat in the Oregon House of Representatives in 1966. He was re-elected to a second term, but in 1970, redistricting forced him to run in another district and he lost in the Democratic primary. Roberts again unsuccessfully sought election to the Oregon House in 1972, but when an open Senate seat was available in 1974, he was elected to the first of six four-year terms representing District 4 in Portland. At the time of his retirement in 1993, Roberts was the longest-serving Oregon legislator.

In 1971, Roberts met Barbara Hughey Sanders, a single mother with an autistic son, who was lobbying for the right of disabled students to attend public schools. Roberts sponsored Sanders' bill, and befriended and married her in 1974. Barbara Roberts was elected to the Oregon House of Representatives in 1980, Oregon Secretary of State in 1984 and 1988, and became Oregon's 34th governor in 1990.

Later life Roberts had a heart attack in 1984, and was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1987. Radiation treatment for his cancer destroyed the nerves in his legs and rendered him unable to walk. In 1993, with his cancer spread to his lungs, Roberts, then the longest-serving member of the Oregon Legislative Assembly, resigned from the Oregon Senate on September 1. He died at Mahonia Hall, Oregon's governor's residence, on October 31.