Roberta C. (Hostetler) Chambliss

Roberta C. Chambliss passed away on July 13, 2026 at 90 years old. She was predeceased by her parents, Galen and Frances Hostetler, and her brother, Charles.

How do you tell the story of someone’s life in a way that encompasses what mattered to them and what made them matter to everyone else? For Roberta, all you had to do was stop in for a visit and look around.

Before you even reached her front door, you’d be met with an explosion of flowers in hanging baskets, bird-feeders, and wind chimes. Indoors, the jungle continued with violets, snake plants, and avocado trees she’d grown from pits crowding windowsills.

But most telling, the walls of her home were covered with framed photos and other keepsakes from the past. There were pictures of her niece’s wedding, her daughter’s graduation, her great-grandparents’ marriage certificate, and her father’s childhood Peter Rabbit cereal bowl. The digital frame on the sideboard cycled through more current pictures of birthdays and pets and even a video of her grandson playing the piano.

She married the late Robert Chambliss in 1956 and raised five children in a house in Toms River, NJ where she lived for nearly sixty years. Her grandchildren and great-grandchildren were her greatest joys, as evidenced by the enormous uptick in shoeboxes full of photos carefully printed out at the local pharmacy. When she moved to Newark, DE nearly eight years ago, all of the boxes, sorted by subject, came with her.

In her new home, there was a desk upstairs and later, a card table downstairs, buried under the trappings to turn those boxed memories into scrapbooks so she could relive and share the first birthdays and handmade cards that she’d collected over the years. Little stickers and labels marked camping trips and holidays, and the myriad other moments that make up a life.

In short, there’s no way to fully create a portrait of her– there’s too much material. She was endlessly optimistic, always believing in the best possible outcome. She was legendarily stubborn, a trait she put to good use fighting to maintain her independence in the face of ever-progressing rheumatoid arthritis. She never had one of anything. She was always collecting: rocks on camping trips, Hummel figurines, stray cats, holiday decorations, estate sale treasures, and memories.

Roberta collected, she didn’t curate. All of it, the Christmas cards, the crayon-drawn pictures on the refrigerator, even the little notes from her 90th birthday bouquets, mattered. They, like the pictures that surrounded her, are evidence of a long life filled with people she loved and who loved her in return.
There’s a photo from last Thanksgiving: Roberta at the center of the couch, smiling, and around her, overflowing the frame, some twenty-five people: her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. That is the picture that best tells her story.

She is survived by her children, Debra (Alexander) von Koch, Steven (Melissa) Chambliss, Kathy Chambliss, Cheryl Chambliss, and Beth (Dominick) Lanzisera; her grandchildren, Kurt (Carrie) von Koch, Mitch (Christie) Chambliss, Corey (Isaac) Chambliss, Lucas Lanzisera, Ian Lanzisera, and Adam Lanzisera; and her great-grandchildren, Noah Chambliss, Jacob Chambliss, Emma von Koch, Olivia von Koch, Lexie von Koch, and Katie von Koch; along with many beloved nieces, nephews, cousins and friends.

In lieu of flowers, memorial donations may be made to the Popcorn Park Animal Refuge (https://www.ahscares.org/popcorn-park) or the Rheumatoid Arthritis Foundation (https://www.HelpFightRA.org).

To send flowers to the family or plant a tree in memory of Roberta C. (Hostetler) Chambliss, please visit our floral store.