30 Sep 2025 A place called home

By Diane Barnes

She’s a chatterbox, with rosy cheeks, eyeglasses that sit on the brim of her nose and a smile that warms the room. Even though she appears to have never had a hardship, disappointment or even a bad hair day, Marie Roberts’ traumatic journey began at the young age of 9, and even at this tender age, she learned to turn lemons into lemonade.

“My Dad was my rock,” Roberts reflected. “I was the eldest with two younger brothers. Our father suffered from tuberculosis for many years, and one day we packed up and moved to Booneville (Logan County), where Dad was being treated at the Arkansas Tuberculosis Sanatorium. Even through his sickness, our father looked out for us children mainly because our mom wasn’t well either; she suffered from an ugly disease called alcoholism.”

While receiving treatment at the sanatorium, her father met a man who would visit and pray with the patients. Sometime later, Roberts learned that his name was Olen Fullerton.

“I watched my father suffer from this debilitating disease as my mother suffered from the disorder of alcoholism,” she said. When she was 9, her father passed away. “That was challenging enough, but to endure the trials ahead was even harder.”

Roberts and her brothers were left in the care of their mother. “Times weren’t always bad, but they weren’t always good either,” she said. “This monstrous disease had its way of bringing out the good, the bad and the ugly. I can honestly say, Mom experienced them all.”

Following her father’s example, Roberts tried to take care of things as he did, however, her mother used more alcohol to cover her loneliness and pain. “What she didn’t know was it also made her angrier,” she said. “So, at 14, I made up my mind to leave home.”

The teen began a journey of meeting people who had heard about the three children who were in the care of a mother who was sick with alcoholism. Some people helped Roberts better understand the disease. “I learned and understood that it wasn’t that Mom didn’t want to care for my brothers and me or that she didn’t love us. With this disease, she just wasn’t capable. One of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do was to testify against my mom. But for our stability and safety, it had to be done.” 

Roberts was asked by a case worker which living facility she preferred for the three of them, and she requested a home near Little Rock. At that time, the nearest location was the Southern Christian Home in Morrilton. In 2021, it was renamed Southern Christian Children’s Home (SCCH). “The caseworker said to me, ‘Ironically, this is the same facility that your father chose for you.’

“Legal documents had been signed by Dad that upon his death, due to mom’s illness, he willed that we be placed in the care of the Southern Christian Children’s Home under the director, Mr. Olen Fullerton. This man had to have been a godsend. Now five years later at age 14 without even a clue, I had chosen the same place that my dad intended we go.”

Roberts lived in a cottage with other girls her age. She quickly realized that she now had sisters. There was a house mother there that they all called Mom Webb, and she felt that she not only had sisters, but also a mother. “For the first time in a long while, I began to feel secure,” she said. “The Southern Christian Children’s Home, just as dad wanted, became my safe place.

“I can honestly say that the best joys of my life have been at the Southern Christian Children’s Home,” Roberts said. “I say that with a full heart because I met the love of my life there, Lindell Roberts. Lindell practically lived there because his mother (Mom Roberts) was a house parent, so he was always on the premises. After some time of flirting and eventually dating, we were married in 1966.”

After marrying, the young couple’s lives continued to center around the home for children. Roberts said it was second nature when they became relief house parents for her mother-in-law. After a couple of years in the position of relief parenting, Marie and Lindell agreed it was their calling and decided to become full-time house parents. The young couple were overseers of a cottage with 18 teenage girls. “Of course, we were in our early 20s, so many of these girls became lifetime friends,” she said.

After a few years, Marie and Lindell moved out and began raising their own family. They had a son, Chris, and later they were blessed with a daughter, Julie. But soon after, they were called back because of the influx of children being placed in the SCCH. They were drawn by their deep understanding of the cries of lonely children and went back and fostered a boy’s cottage and later a girl’s cottage. This is where they remained until Marie retired in 2007.

The Robertses spent 35 years taking care of children who needed love. Roberts remains connected to the home for children as the president of the Board of Alumni. She is active in the annual May Day Homecoming reunion of former students and residents. She works to learn about grants and fundraising opportunities to make certain that every need is met for those who live there.

Roberts, with her warm smile, said that through it all, she feels extremely blessed. She and Lindell celebrated 59 years of marriage on Sept. 10. He is still active in caring for children through his more than 40-year career as a school bus driver for the South Conway County School District. They have one grandson and two great-grands who are her daily “sunshine.”

“Mom eventually beat the addiction of alcoholism, and more importantly, she found Christ,” Roberts said. “After some time and praying, Mom and I developed a relationship. She passed from cancer in 2009 at the age of 83, when I was 62.”

SCCH in Conway County is still very much in use, according to Roberts. Gary Gipson has been the executive director for six years. There are two active cottages on campus and 25 young residents ranging from the ages of 4 to 17. There is an on-site therapy clinic and an off-site 200-acre farm and ranch with horses for equine therapy. On the animal farm, the children learn about nature and animals, as well as chores and dependability. “I truly feel that the Southern Christian Children’s Home saved mine and my brothers’ lives, and I will forever be invested with them,” Roberts said.