NORFOLK, Va. — Dede Robertson, the spouse of non secular broadcaster Pat Robertson and a founding board member of the Christian Broadcasting Community, died Tuesday at her residence in Virginia Seaside, the community mentioned in a press release.
Robertson was 94. The assertion didn’t present her reason for loss of life.
Robertson turned a born-again Christian a number of months after her husband discovered his religion. The couple, who met at Yale College in 1952, launched into a journey that included dwelling in a roach-infested commune in New York earlier than Pat Robertson purchased a tiny tv station in Virginia that will turn into the Christian Broadcasting Community.
He later ran for president of the USA in 1988, together with his spouse campaigning by his aspect.
“Mother was the glue that held the Robertson household collectively,” mentioned Gordon Robertson, one among her 4 kids, and the president and CEO of CBN. “She was all the time working behind the scenes. If it weren’t for Mother, there wouldn’t be a CBN.”
Adelia “Dede” Elmer was born in Columbus, Ohio, to middle-class Catholic Republicans. She acquired her bachelors diploma from Ohio State and a masters in nursing from Yale.
Robertson’s future husband was the son of a Southern Baptist, Democratic U.S. senator. Eighteen months after assembly, they ran off to be married by a justice of the peace, figuring out that neither household would approve.
Robertson’s husband was excited by politics till he discovered faith, she informed The Related Press in 1987. He shocked her by pouring out their liquor, tearing a nude print off the wall and declaring he had discovered the Lord.
They moved into the commune in Bedford-Stuyvesant as a result of Robertson mentioned God had informed him to promote all his possessions and minister to the poor. Robertson informed The AP she was tempted to return to Ohio, “however I noticed that was not what the Lord would have me do … I had promised to remain, so I did.”
Pat Robertson later heard God inform him to purchase the small TV station in Portsmouth, Virginia, which might turn into a world non secular broadcasting community. He ran the community’s flagship program, the “700 Membership,” for half a century earlier than stepping down final fall.
In her autobiography, Robertson recalled bridling at staying at residence and her husband’s refusal to assist round the home.
“I used to be a Northerner, and Northern males simply typically assist round the home a little bit extra,” she mentioned. “I observed the additional south we moved, the much less he did.”
Her angle modified after she had her personal born-again expertise at a church service, she informed The AP. “I started to see how essential what he was doing actually was.”
Robertson mentioned that ladies shouldn’t work exterior the house whereas their kids are younger until they need to. She reared her children and labored as a nursing professor after they went to high school.
She had represented the U.S. on the Inter-American Fee of Girls, which was established to make sure recognition of girls’s human rights. She additionally served on the board of Regent College, which her husband based.
Pat Robertson mentioned in a press release that his spouse “was a girl of nice religion, a champion of the gospel, and a outstanding servant of Christ who has left an indelible print on all that she set her hand to throughout her extraordinary life.”
