Barbara Rose (Marks) Roraback

SALISBURY — Barbara Rose (Marks) Roraback, 81, died at her home in Salisbury on Feb. 17, 2017. Her family was at her side. 

Barbara, or Babs as she was also known, was born on Feb. 4, 1936, at her grandmother’s home on Echo Street to Grace (Ball) and Claude Marks. She was to be named Dorcas Jean, but her grandmother stepped in and named her Barbara Rose, for which Barbara was always grateful. She was the third of six children and the only girl. 

 Barbara grew up in Salisbury. Her father worked as a mason and at the knife handle factory and her mother was a cook for various families in town. She went to the Grove Street School and Housatonic Valley Regional High School (HVRHS). 

She liked to tell how her family was descended from the “raggies” who worked in the iron ore industry on Mount Riga. 

 She quit high school at 16 to help care for her three younger brothers but was proud that she went back and earned a GED from HVRHS in 1981. 

In 1954 she married Robert “Bob” Roraback, an electrician, plumber, carpenter and appliance repairman who was familiar throughout the area for many years. They had three daughters, Claudia, Christina  and Robin. Barbara had always prayed for girls since she had had five brothers.

Barbara was a devoted wife and mother and grandmother. The Roraback backyard was a gathering place for the neighborhood children and scene of many lively re-enactments of “Gilligan’s Island” on the big rock in the backyard when they lived for a while on East Street in Lakeville. Later, when they moved to Main Street, the little woods in the backyard became the place “to be” with tree forts and night time games of hide and seek.

She loved baking and mastered the art of baking bread. She enjoyed cooking and experimented with a recipe until she perfected it. She was a vegetarian. 

She loved roses and watching birds at the bird feeder. She was a Girl Scout leader and Sunday school teacher. She could be seen in the cook shack during horse shows when Christina and Robin were in the Lakeville Pony Club. She watched many parades when Claudia was in the Salisbury Band playing flute. She and Bob spent many cold afternoons watching Claudia ski with SWSA. She always attended school meetings and concerts. She enjoyed walking, cross-country skiing and bike rides with her children. She also liked to refinish furniture and restore wood work.

She worked in the kitchen at Salisbury Central School in order to have school vacations free for her daughters. Later she worked as a health aide for Housatonic Homemaker —Health Aides and Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association and in the nurse’s office at Salisbury Central School for a time. She worked for many years in the Salisbury Pharmacy as a store clerk when it was owned by Bam, Anna and Walter Whitbeck.

Barbara loved animals and the Roraback household always had dogs and cats and at various times turtles, rabbits, a woodchuck, a wood duck, horses and ponies and birds. 

When her grandson, Aaron, was born in 1981, Barbara was overjoyed. She enjoyed babysitting him and watching him grow up. 

Barbara is survived by her daughter Claudia Barnum and her husband, Mark, of California and her daughter Christina Purdy and her husband, Dana, of Maine; her daughter Robin Roraback of Salisbury; her grandson, Aaron Purdy of New York state; her brothers, David Marks of North Canaan, Peter Marks and his wife, Candace, of Southfield, Mass., and Robert Marks and his wife, Norma, of Lakeville; and many nieces, nephews and cousins. 

She was predeceased by her husband, Robert; and her brothers, Allan “Brud” Marks of Salisbury and Claude “Chub” Marks.

She also leaves behind her beautiful calico cat, Phoebe, who will remain with daughter Robin.

Donations can be made in memory of Barbara to the Salisbury Visiting Nurse Association, 30 A Salmon Kill Road, Salisbury, CT 06068; or the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service, P.O. Box 582, Salisbury, CT 06068. The Roraback and Marks families are very grateful for their wonderful care of Barbara during her illnesses.

Arrangements are under the care of Newkirk Palmer Funeral Home in North Canaan.