Smiling graciously as several couples danced in front of her 100th birthday cake at Zon Beachside Jan. 16, retired banker Helen Margaret Roberts of Indian Harbour Beach quietly shared stories of an independent Midwestern upbringing and of her high school classmate Ronald Reagan.
“I had a crush on him. He was about four years ahead of me. People used to ask me about it years ago but I didn’t like talking about him once he was married. He was a nice person,’’ she said.
Growing up in a small community in Illinois with no high school, she had to find a way to get the 20 miles to Reagan’s hometown, Dixon, Ill., to continue her education beyond grade school.
The oldest of five daughters, she knew her father couldn’t afford to send each to high school. “I told him, ‘Don’t worry about it, Daddy. I told him I have to get an education. He just shook his head. I found my own way,’’ she said.
Saving until she had enough money to place a classified ad in the Dixon newspaper, she ended up working as a domestic for a couple for the entire four years during high school. When she graduated, she never went home.
Her first job was in a jewelry store and her first big customer was the bank president.
“When he got through picking out a gift for his wife, he said, ‘You don’t belong here’ and it scared me. I didn’t do anything wrong. He told me to come up to the bank for an interview and he offered me a beginner’s job. They put me in a place where I could start learning the vault, the system, the whole thing,” she said.
Staying in banking and rising through the ranks to the very top, including a posting as senior vice president, she moved to Brevard in the late 1950s when her husband took a job with a Harris Corp. predecessor called Radiation. She got hired by the Bank of Melbourne and Trust Company.
“They kept saying, ‘We haven’t ever had a woman in that position,’ and I told them ‘Think nothing of it.’ Banking was the perfect job for me: I like being responsible for things and I enjoyed meeting people,‘’ she said.
Roberts said she feels good at age 100 (she actually turns 100 on Jan. 26), with the exception of her left leg injured during a fall four years ago.
“From the hip on down it’s been a problem. If not for that I would have been right out there on the floor with those dancers. I’ve always loved dancing.”
