Roxanne Frances Anderson

Born August 31, 1952 in Montebello, California (along with her twin sister) our Mom spent her childhood raised by a single father of 4 children (with help from his mom) mostly in West Covina, moving to Upland and graduating from Upland High School. As a teenager she loved playing sports and sang in the glee club at school.

Upon graduating high school she married an active duty Navy service member and spent 14 years as a military wife, giving birth to and raising her 6 children all over the United States. Due to her husband’s service we were required to pack up and move about every 2 years – living in 7 different states in 14 years - but Mom never complained. She was a passionately patriotic American who loved her children, country and God.

Our mom was unapologetically and unabashedly proud that she carried a legacy of military service through in her family. Her father served during WWII in the Coast Guard, her oldest daughter served as an Army wife for 14 years, her eldest son served in the Army, her younger son and daughter-in-law served as Marines. She was beyond excited on Thanksgiving when her 10 year old grandson announced he wanted to serve when he grew up.

After spending the first 14 years of her adult life as a homemaker, wife and mother Mom found herself a single mom with 6 kids to support and went to work taking any type of job she could that would provide for her children. She soon found her niche working as a public servant for local government agencies.

In her long career as support personnel she worked for the police chief of Pomona (twice), the City of Hesperia City Planning and police departments and the City of Upland’s Police Department. She loved working alongside law enforcement, helping them to do their job of serving and protecting the public.

Even though she worked full-time, she attended as many of our events as she could. She loved to paint ceramics, baked and decorated our birthday cakes, attended school plays and basketball games. She was extremely proud of her kids and their accomplishments, bragging about us to anyone and everyone who would listen.

Upon retiring from Upland Police Department, she decided she still wanted to work and took a part time job as a school crossing guard. She loved her job and viewed it as her responsibility to keep the children safe as they walked to and from school, willing to put her body between the kids and oncoming traffic if necessary. She loved the children and they loved her; bringing her presents, giving her hugs and missing her whenever she had to miss work due to illness.

Mom loved America (at the age of 50 she put a 9-11 memorial tattoo on her shoulder!), classic cars, country music, dancing and her kids. She has 6 children, 11 grandchildren, a twin sister and an older sister, she also lived to see her first great-grandchild be born this year.