Roberta Semple Salter - Early Life

Early Life

Salter was born in Hong Kong, where her mother and father, Robert Semple, were doing missionary work. Robert died of dysentery and malaria shortly before her birth, and her mother named her Roberta Star — "Roberta" in her father's memory and "Star" because she had brightened what her mother perceived to be a grim future.

Roberta inherited her mother's "brilliant smile," biographer Daniel Mark Epstein noted in his 1993 book Sister Aimee. She led children's services at her mother's revivals. Roberta also hosted a radio program and wrote a youth column, "Aunt Birdie," for the church newspaper.

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