Topic: Barbara Roberts

Former Governor Roberts speaking at women's leadership conference in 2006.

Barbara K. Roberts (born on December 21, 1936 in Corvallis, Oregon) is a Democratic politician. She served as Governor of Oregon from 1991 to 1995, the first and, to date, only woman to be elected to that office. Roberts is a fourth generation Oregonian and grew up in Sheridan, Oregon, where she graduated from Sheridan High School. She attended Portland State University from 1961 to 1964 and, later, the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University and Marylhurst University.

Roberts has two sons, Mark and Mike. She was married to Oregon State Senator Frank Roberts from 1974 until his death in 1993 from prostate cancer. After the death of her husband, Roberts wrote the book Death Without Denial Grief Without Apology: A Guide for Facing Death and Loss. The character of adult Gertrude Lang in the 1995 film "Mr. Holland's Opus" may have been based on Roberts due to the movie being filmed in Oregon.