Brian Lee Roberts

Brian Lee Roberts, of Groesbeck, passed away peacefully at 1:34 p.m. on Saturday, August 12, 2023, in Waco, TX, with his family by his side.

There will be Visitation at Groesbeck Funeral Home from 9:00 – 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 18, 2023.  Please dress casual (jeans and boots - no suits) as Brian would wish.

Funeral services will begin at 10:00 a.m. on Friday, August 18, 2023, in the Groesbeck Funeral Home Chapel, with Pastor David Snow of the Shiloh Baptist Church officiating.   Burial will follow in Old Bethel Cemetery.

Pallbearers will be Troy Schatte, Todd Payne, Lee Ivey, Eddie Plummer, Mike Hanson and Ronnie Syzdek.

Brian was born in St. Joseph’s Hospital, Houston, TX. on August 15, 1964, to Billy Roy Roberts and Carol Mayfield Roberts.   He grew up in Houston and graduated from Aldine High School in the Class of 1982.   Folllowing graduation, Brian moved to Laramie, Wyoming for diesel mechanic training at Wyoming Technical Institute.   After completing technical school, he worked for a crane company, which involved interstate travels on his job.

Brian met his future wife, Ronda, while they were both singing karoke in Conroe.  With two of their friends, they sang “All My Rowdy Friends Have Settled Down”, which led to their dating and finally their marriage on March 13, 1999.  They had planned to marry on Mr. Plummer’s park-like bridge in Plummer’s Bottom, but a “blue norther” changed their plans at the last-minute moving inside Ronda’s parent’s barn.   Brian put out signs directing everyone to the new location for their “Wed-in” and to the horse trailer for their “Honeymoon Suite.”

After their marriage they lived in Magnolia and Brian was self-employed with his own company, Ranch Services.  He was a man of many talents who could design and build most anything.  When the family was planning to move to Groesbeck, where Ronda’s family lived, Brian surprised Ronda and Dusty while they were at school, by holding a huge garage sale.   For all the years afterwards, when anything could not be found, it must have been in the garage sale.

The family moved to Groesbeck in 2006.  Brian worked for Westmoreland Coal and then was self-employed, whether it was welding, tractor mechanics, building trailers, pipe fences and entryways, BBQ pitts on wheels, or metal buildings.  While his son Dusty was in high school, he kept him busy painting the projects he had made.  Brian had every tool anyone could need, but if anyone used one of the tools, they had better put in back in it’s right place.  

After his father-in-law passed away, Brian and Ronda moved to the Mikolajchak ranch to help her Mom with the cattle. He enjoyed fishing and loved his Border Collies.  Brian loved to keep busy producing something at all times and was currently in the process of building a bunk house.

Brian is preceded in death by his father, Billy Roy Roberts; father-in-law, Mike Mikolajchak; brother-in-law, Robbie Wesley Garrison; and grandparents Roy Roberts, Kahlan Stevens Roberts, Joseph Patrick Mayfield, and Emma Olivia Mayfield. 

Brian is survived by his loving wife of 24 years, Ronda Roberts; son and daughter-in-law, Dusty and Jordyn Roberts; son and daughter-in-law, Cody and Kristen Skyvara and their children,  Olivia, Owen, and Henry Skyvara; mother-in law, Max Mikolajchak; mother, Carol Roberts Mayfield; sister, Allison Roberts Hanson and husband Mike; sister, Karen Roberts Syzdek and husband Ronnie; and nieces and nephews Riley Syzdek, Hadley Hanson Moskal and husband Conner, Reed Syzdek, and Kinley Hanson.