Wilma Joan Roberts, 91, of Baxter, Minnesota died on September 13, 2026, at Northern Lakes Senior Living, Baxter, Minn.

Born on April 7, 1935, near New York Mills, Wilma was the daughter of Aaron and Dorothy (Burrell) Roberts. She was raised alongside five older siblings and one younger sibling and spent her early school years attending a one-room country school in Newton Township. She graduated from New York Mills High School in 1952 and later earned her teaching degree from St. Cloud State Teachers College.

Wilma’s life was marked by education, service, and an extraordinary international reach. She moved to Alaska to teach alongside her sister, Alice, and later went to Brazil, a place that remained one of the great loves of her life. There, she taught English at a United Methodist mission school in Santa Maria. After returning to the United States, she attended graduate school while teaching English in the Chicago public school system, graduating from Northwestern University in 1972.

In the 1980s, Wilma moved to New York City to work as an executive secretary for the United Methodist Church’s mission board. In the years that followed, she traveled widely in support of United Methodist missions around the world. She carefully kept track of the countries she had visited; by retirement, the list of places she had not seen was shorter than the list of those she had.

After retiring in 2003, Wilma returned to Brainerd, where she continued to contribute through translation services and fundraising activities. Until 2019, she was also an active member of the Brainerd chapter of the Daughters of the American Revolution.

The enduring great love of Wilma’s life was her family, especially her 19 nieces and nephews, and their children and grandchildren. Throughout her adult life, she delighted in bringing them gifts from her travels around the world. She is deeply loved and will be dearly missed by all.