Alberta “Bertie” Louise Forbes was born on April 4, 1938, in Osborne County, Kansas and passed away on March 31,2019 at Homestead Assisted Living in Manhattan, Kansas at the age of 80.
She lived her younger years in Osborne County. Later, the family moved to Benkleman, Nebraska. After Alberta’s father died in a plane crash in 1945, Alberta’s mother, Gladys, and the children moved to Covert, Kansas, to be near the Roenne family. In 1949, the family moved to Rexford, Kansas where Alberta and her three brothers attended school.
After high school, she attended Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas. This is where she met the love of her life, Donald Sites. They were married August 25, 1957, in Rexford, and moved to the farm south of Grinnell where they lived the rest of her life. Alberta and Donald were inseparable. They enjoyed traveling. After retirement, they traveled to at least 84 countries. When telling stories of her travels, people would ask her where the most beautiful place on earth was, her response every time, was western Kansas. She loved being a farmer’s wife, spending many hours working outside with the family working with the cattle, gardening, or doing whatever needed to be done. Alberta was very active in the Grinnell United Methodist Church and the local Extension Homemaker Units (EHU). Alberta had many hobbies that she enjoyed with her husband. They traveled all over the U.S. and Canada searching for unique antique items and patent models. They moved the Grinnell Train Depot to the north Oakley 1-70 exit and turned it into a museum. Alberta’s favorite treasures were the lightning rod ball collection, the windmill weight collection, the barbed wire collection, and the cast iron seat collection. She was very proud that she held the Powder-Puff Barbed Wire Championship for a few back-to-back years. Donald and Alberta had celebrated 61 years of marriage last year.
Alberta and Donald were blessed with a son, Dalen, in 1958, and a daughter, Marla, in 1961. Dalen is a veterinarian and lives in Mohave Valley, Arizona with his wife Deann. Their child, D’adra, was Alberta’s first granddaughter. D’adra lives in Phoenix, Arizona and is a Certified Nuclear Medicine Technologist. Marla lives in a rural area near Olsburg, Kansas with her husband Lynn. Marla works at Covetrus in the Manhattan, Kansas office. Lynn and Marla gave Alberta and Donald two more granddaughters, Codie and Callie. Codie lives in Topeka, Kansas and will be graduating from Washburn Law School this May. Codie and her fiancé, Tanner Swartz, are planning an August 10, 2019, wedding. Callie lives in Manhattan, Kansas and attends Kansas State University. She is majoring in Kinesiology and plans to attend Physical Therapy school in the future.
Alberta was preceded in death by her father Lewis Willard Forbes and her mother, Gladys Alberta Roenne Forbes. In addition to her children and grandchildren, Alberta is survived by three brothers; Lewis Forbes (wife Hazel) of Madera, California; Duane (wife Connie) of Mesa, Arizona, and Marion (wife Marlene) of Fresno, California.
Funeral Service will be held at 10:30 am Saturday, April 6, 2019 at Kennedy-Koster Funeral Home in Oakley. Burial will be at the Grinnell Township Cemetery, Grinnell. Visitation: 6 to 8 p.m. Friday at the funeral home. Memorials: Alberta Sites Memorial Fund in care of Kennedy-Koster Funeral Home, P.O. Box 221, Oakley, KS 67748. online guestbook: www.kennedykosterfh.com