Dancer Roberta reveals simple steps to a long life

Great-grandmother Roberta Roberts, who turns 100 this week, says the secret to her longevity is a lifetime not drinking, not smoking and taking plenty of exercise.

Roberta Roberts was born Roberta Jamesetta Simpson Shanks at Edinburgh Royal Maternity Hospital on April 28, 1911. Her father was Robert Muir, a boot maker and paper mill worker, and her mother was Elizabeth Simpson Shanks, who worked in a biscuit factory.

She was educated at Leith Primary School and throughout her life was a keen dancer. In 1925 at the age of 14 she put on her first concert party. She was a member of the Persevere Entertainers, who were based in Leith and put on shows for charity over many years.

She won medals for both dancing and teaching dance and was skilled at Highland, tap and ballroom dancing. Her granddaughter, Caron Innes remembers the table and chairs being pushed back in the kitchen so her grandmother could dance.

She said: "Every time we visited her as grandchildren we were taught how to do the cha cha cha whether we wanted to or not."

She continued to dance and practice tai chi well into her 80s. Caron said: "She was showing my niece her medals just the other day."

It was when he was auditioning as a comedian for the Persevere Entertainers that Roberta met her first husband, Robert William Burgess. He was an amateur boxer and in the Royal Navy. He went on to be a scrap yard worker and died in 1976.

Roberta and Robert had three children, Robert and twins Elizabeth and Suzanne. Suzanne died aged six in 1947.

Roberta later married Thomas Roberts who she met through her dancing. He worked at the Scottish and Newcastle Brewery at Fountainbridge in Edinburgh and died in 2000.

She spent most of her working life as the manageress of the Stockbridge branch of Rankins fruit and flower shop, as well as bringing up her family. Rankins was an Edinburgh institution with another shop on Princes Street.

Throughout her life she has been involved in charity work.

At the age of 78 she was knocked down and had to have a pin put into her neck. After her convalescence she volunteered at the Western General Hospital where she had been taken after the accident and continued to help on the neurological ward for five years.

Enjoying flower arranging, Roberta made baskets of artificial flowers, which she sold to raise funds for local good causes.

In her 80s Roberta moved to Dundee to be near Elizabeth, but is still very independent, living in sheltered housing to this day.

She has seven grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren who live in Edinburgh and Dundee.