Roberta L. Raymond facts for kids

Roberta Lee Raymond, also known as Bobbie Raymond, was an amazing American woman. Born on November 16, 1938, she lived until May 7, 2019. Bobbie was many things: an actress, a sociologist (someone who studies how people live together in groups), a civil rights worker, an artist, and a writer. She was married to Richard Gustavus Larson and had a son, Charles, and a grandson, Trevor.

Early Acting Adventures

Bobbie grew up in Oak Park, Illinois. She started acting when she was just a kid, from 1946 to 1952. Her very first professional job was playing a child on a record album called The Christmas Story.

Using the stage name Roberta Alden, she worked in many different areas of entertainment. She was on radio shows like Jack Armstrong, the All-American Boy. She also did lots of radio commercials for things like cookies and milk!

On television, she appeared in shows such as The Magic Slate and Super Circus. She even performed in live stage shows. Bobbie also acted in films that were made for companies, like those for Kraft Foods and Squibb Pharmaceuticals. One important film she was in was The Growth of a Nation. She also starred in a film called Parties Are Fun, which sounds like a lot of fun!

Later, in New York City, Bobbie continued her acting career. She was a guest star on big TV shows like the Jerry Lewis NBC Spectacular and the U. S. Steel Hour. She also appeared in commercials for popular products like Alka-Seltzer. In 1958, she earned her Actors Equity membership card, which is a special card that means you're a professional actor.

Helping Communities: Sociology and Civil Rights

Bobbie decided to change her focus from acting to studying how societies work, which is called sociology. She went to college to learn more about it.

In 1966, Bobbie became very interested in making sure people of all races could live in any neighborhood they chose. This is called "fair housing." A nearby area in Chicago had struggled with this, and many white families had moved away. Bobbie joined a group in Oak Park that worked for human rights. This group wanted to pass a law to make housing fair for everyone and help different groups of people live together. Bobbie played a big part in getting the 1968 Fair Housing Ordinance passed in Oak Park.

Her work in fair housing became very important to her. She decided to go to graduate school to study sociology even more. Her experiences helping people find homes, along with her research, became her master's thesis. This big paper was about how Oak Park handled racial change. She earned her master's degree with high honors in 1972.

This thesis led Bobbie to start the Oak Park Housing Center in 1972. The center's goal was to help keep Oak Park a diverse community. Volunteers at the center helped people looking for homes. They encouraged white families to keep moving to Oak Park while also helping minority families find new opportunities. This helped make sure different groups of people lived in all neighborhoods.

National Recognition for Fair Housing

The Oak Park Housing Center became very successful under Bobbie's leadership. In 1973, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) said it was one of the best housing programs in the country!

A documentary film about Oak Park, called As Time Goes By: Oak Park, Illinois, was shown in 1974. In 1976, Oak Park won the special All-America City Award. This award recognized the great work of the Housing Center, along with other community efforts. Bobbie Raymond actually wrote the winning presentation script for this award! This award brought a lot of attention to Oak Park.

Bobbie and the Housing Center were even featured on the famous TV show 60 Minutes in 1978. She also appeared on the Phil Donahue Show to talk about racial fairness. Her work was also highlighted in a BBC Radio Documentary in 1991.

Bobbie stepped down as the executive director of the Housing Center in 1996.

Spreading the "Oak Park Strategy"

Bobbie was also a key member of The Oak Park Exchange Congress, which started in 1977. This group brought together fair housing organizations from many different states. They met every year to talk about how to create diverse communities in housing, schools, and even churches. The "Oak Park Strategy" for integration became a model for other places across the country.

Fifty years later, Oak Park is still a diverse community. Many people thought it would become separated by race again, but that didn't happen. This was mainly because of the programs that Bobbie and the Housing Center started. The local government and the Housing Center worked together on many projects. They helped improve apartment buildings, trained managers, and encouraged thousands of people to choose homes in ways that helped keep the community diverse.

Bobbie believed in integration for all parts of life. She used her skills from acting, advertising, and art to show how successful the "Oak Park Strategy" was. She even used art, sports, and architecture to help promote diversity.

Promoting Diversity Through Arts and Sports

In the late 1960s, Bobbie organized the first art show in Oak Park that featured art by Black artists. It was called 25 Negro Artists in Illinois and was held at the Oak Park Public Library.

In 1980, Bobbie helped start the Austin Village House Tour. This popular tour showed off beautiful homes in the Austin neighborhood of Chicago. The tour helped improve the relationship between Oak Park and Austin. Because of efforts by Bobbie and others, Austin Village was named a historic district in 1986.

In 1983, Bobbie helped create the Boulevard Run 10K Race. This race went through Oak Park and Austin. Bobbie was the Race Director for all ten years it was held. The race brought many runners together and connected the two communities.

Bobbie also interviewed Lewis Pope for a documentary series. Lewis Pope was a football player who was not allowed to play in a big game because he was Black. Bobbie also led discussions about diversity in Oak Park.

Bobbie served on the boards of many organizations, including the Oak Park Development Corporation and The Ernest Hemingway Foundation.

Awards and Honors

Bobbie Raymond received many awards and honors throughout her life for her amazing work.

• In 1977, she was recognized by The Chicago Daily News as one of the "Doers: People Who Keep Chicago on the Go."
• She received the Community Merit Award in 1987.
• In 1989, she won the Patron of the Arts Award for supporting artists and helping create housing for them.
• The National Organization for Women gave her an award in 1990 for her great work in social welfare.
• She was named one of the 25 most influential people in Oak Park in both 1991 and 1995.
• The Illinois Chamber of Commerce gave her the Athena Award for women leaders.
• In 1996, Roosevelt University gave her the Eleanor Roosevelt Humanitarian Award. That same year, she was called a "Living Legend" in Oak Park.
• In 2000, she received the Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award.

Bobbie was also interviewed for the TV series NOVA and for radio shows like Curious City and BackStory.

Artistic Creations

Bobbie Raymond was also a talented artist, especially known for her watercolor paintings. Her art showed her deep love for nature. She painted beautiful subjects like rare wild orchids, flowers, and sea creatures. She also did portraits and figure drawings.

Her paintings have been shown in many art exhibits, including at the Oak Park Art League and the Ernest Hemingway Foundation. Her artwork was even featured on menus for US Air in the 1990s! In 1995, she illustrated a book called The Gift to be Simple Bread Book. In 2014, her "Sunflower" painting was chosen to promote the Oak Park Farmers Market.

People collect Bobbie's artwork in the United States, Canada, and France.

Author and Storyteller

Bobbie started her writing career as an advertising copywriter in the 1960s. She wrote many articles about fair housing, including a piece for the Chicago Sun-Times magazine. She also wrote an important study about the history of Black people in Oak Park, showing that a Black community had existed there since the 1870s. This was the first published work on Oak Park's early Black history.

From 2000 to 2002, Bobbie wrote a weekly gardening column for the Wednesday Journal.

Bobbie also wrote and illustrated two children's books! Her book Amy and the Amaryllis was recognized nationally in 2015. The Ocean Conservancy helped with her book Three Sea Tales, and in 2015, they featured it as the only children's book for summer reading.

Her one-act play, An Imaginary Interview with Elizabeth Louise Vigée Le Brun, has been performed in different regions since 2013.

Later Life

Bobbie Raymond passed away on May 7, 2019, in Chicago. She had been dealing with a long illness.