Roberta Maher's story

In 1901 Brooklyn, Roberta was born the fourth of five children to John Joseph and Lillian Charlotte Ehlers Maher. Roberta’s mother stayed home with the children and her father John worked as a letter carrier for the Post Office. Though both of her parents were born in New York, Roberta must have grown up with both German and Irish influences in her life, as both parents were first generation Americans. Roberta’s older brother Edwin was married and out of the house when Roberta was quite young. There was a fifth female child born when Roberta was about four years old, but who died stillborn, perhaps nameless, and buried in Green-Wood Cemetery.

In 1910, Roberta was living with her parents and older sisters in a rented apartment at 197 7th Avenue in Brooklyn. She was surrounded on the block with children of other immigrant families in professions such as salesmen, bricklayers, firemen, shoemakers, etc.

Roberta’s mother dies in June 1919; Roberta is still living with her older sisters and her father in the apartment on 7th Avenue. Her father continues to work as a letter carrier. While Roberta is attending school, sister Florence is working as a stenographer at a Publishing Company and Lillian is keeping house for the family.

By 1925, Roberta’s sister Florence has married handsome C. Herbert Lee, and they have moved to their own apartment in Brooklyn. Roberta is again an aunt, this time to Florence’s daughter Virginia. Roberta, Lillian and father John move to a new apartment at 35 Clarkson Avenue, still in Brooklyn. By this time Roberta is also working as a stenographer, a respectable office job for women.

In September 1928, Roberta gets her first taste for foreign travel, potentially traveling with a few single girlfriends. She spends a week in Bermuda.

Somewhere along the line, Roberta meets a young(er) man, Albert Carlton Gould, who works as a radio engineer. He was born in Jamaica, Long Island, and living in 1929 at 1636 Emmons Avenue along the waterfront in Brooklyn. Roberta and Albert marry in September 1929. They live together at 2714 Avenue D in Brooklyn, Albert commuting to the airport to work on airplanes.

Roberta and Albert do not have any children and they ultimately divorce , though no information has yet been found about the date; the divorce is gleaned from a later passenger list which lists Roberta’s marital status as divorced.

We lose Roberta’s story until 1953 when she returns from a trip to the Caribbean over New Year’s with her older sister Lillian. At this point the sisters are living together at 207 West 11th Street.
Roberta dies in October 1969 at her apartment. Natalie, the wife of Roberta's nephew Charley, remembers sitting with Lillian at their apartment when Roberta died.

The Maher women, taken about 1918. Roberta is sitting up front on the floor, with her mother behind her.