Ruby Altizer Roberts
American writer

Ruby Altizer Roberts (April 22, 1907 – May 24, 2004) was a writer and the first female Poet Laureate of Virginia.
Personal life
Roberts was born in Alum Ridge, Virginia in 1907. When she was still a child her family moved to Cambria, Virginia, where she spent most of the rest of her life. She was married to highway contractor Laurence Roberts from 1927 until his death in 1966; the couple had one daughter.
Writing
Early in her career Roberts published two collections of poetry, Forever Is Too Long (1946) and Command the Stars (1948). Her poems also appeared in magazines and in newspapers such as The New York Times and The Washington Post. In 1952 she became editor of traditional poetry journal The Lyric, a position she held for the next 25 years.
Her prose works consist of a genealogical history, three memoirs, and the children's book The Story of Buzzy Bee (1982).
Awards and recognition
Roberts received a number of awards and honours in connection with her writing. In 1950 she was named the Poet Laureate of Virginia; she was the first woman to win the award.
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This entry incorporates text from “Ruby Altizer Roberts” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.