By Bill Rufty
The Ledger
05/11/2010
Judi Roberts, wife of Polk Republican Party Chairman Gene Roberts and a survivor of Guillain-Barre syndrome contracted from a swine flu vaccination in 1976, died early today following an 11-year bout with cancer.
She was 70.
Forced to wear braces since the vaccination, she educated people on the little-known syndrome and even appeared on the television news program “60 Minutes” in the late 1970s.
In a 2007 interview with The Ledger and in another Ledger interview earlier this year following another outbreak of swine flu, she explained the effects of Guillian-Barre and noted well-known victims of the disease including swimmer Rowdy Gaines and actor Andy Griffith. Both had much milder forms.
What she did not mention and few but close friends knew, husband Gene said, was her fight against her own cancer for more than 11 years.
Services will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at First United Methodist Church, 72 Lake Morton Drive, Lakeland.
Heath Funeral Home is handling arrangements.