Finnegan Schick Photo
Close to 300 friends and relations of Ray Anthony “Bobo” Roberson gathered Saturday morning to remember a painter, family man, and friend of the Dixwell community whose life was cut short this summer.
The memorial was in the Christ Chapel New Testament Church. It celebrated the life of a man whose gruesome murder rocked the city, with the discovery of Roberson’s amputated legs and arms near the State Street railroad station on July 15. A week later, what was believed to be Roberson’s torso was found in a Salvation Army building turned homeless house. The decrepit building and its neighbor have since been purchased for renovation by New Haven developer Robert Smith.
Roberson’s body is still being held as evidence by the police and his murderer has yet to be identified. That didn’t stop the community from laying him to rest with love and dignity.
Pastor Anthony Davis, who led the memorial, was a close friend of the Roberson family, who took him into their home when he was a child.
Davis began with a quotation from Psalms: “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil,” he said.
“We need to thank God for life. They can take his life but they cannot take Bobo’s spirit,” David said.
Born in 1960, Roberson grew up in the now-demolished Elm Haven Housing project, known colloquially as “Ashum Street PJ’s.” Several of his school friends spoke from the podium, praising Roberson’s humor, his artistic streak, and his kind way with people. Roberson graduated from Wilbur Cross High in 1979.
Talk of redemption recurred throughout the service, especially when it came to growing up in the projects. Carton White, another Ashum Street native, delivered a poem about “people from the bricks” triumphing over and surviving life in poverty and violence.
“You might have destroyed a body but you could never destroy one of God’s souls,” White said.
Speakers condemned how local media reported on Roberson’s death; many of his friends and family said the portrayal of Roberson as a homeless person was incomplete and insensitive. Roberson had connections in the city, had close and frequent relations with family, and was a freelance painter. When the Hannah Gray Home, a low-income residential center, needed renovation, Roberson painted the interior for a low rate.
“You need to be careful putting labels on people,” Davis said. “Ray was more than the papers tried to portray him. He loved his family, he loved his friends, and he loved his community.”
White echoed this sentiment, adding that all people are homeless in one way or another with “one foot in, one foot out of God’s grace.”
Although Roberson did not attend church, he read the Bible often.
“Ray felt more co,fortable on a bench in the New Haven Green than he felt in the churches,” Davis said.
Members of Roberson’s extended family sat in the front pews. Sister Sherell Nesmith and cousins and nephews shared their memories of Roberson, who they described as philosophical and a conversationalist. Jeff Nelson and Leroy Smalls called Roberson their brother and best friend, someone who supported them during periods of trouble.
As the memorial went on, a fuller picture of Roberson emerged. He carried a toothpick in his mouth, loved hot sauce with his food, and had an ear for music. Photographs of Roberson in high school and with his arm around friends showed him to be a well known, albeit disadvantaged, member of the community. Roberson’s death was mourned with prayer and with song.
“Blessed are those that mourn for they shall be comforted,” Church Elder Barbara Payne said. “You never know when another senseless act is going to happen,” added Davis. Pastor Sigmund Morriar ended the memorial with a eulogy about God’s power over the lives of all people, Roberson included. Outside the church, four white doves were released from a box and the ceremony was over.
“[Roberson] will always live on in our memories,” Morriar said over a rumble of “amen“s. “Funerals and memorials are not for the dead, but for the living.”
Activist for the homeless Jesse Hardy, a friend of Roberson, will host a cookout in Roberson’s honor on Sept. 12 at Scantlebury Park, from noon to 6 p.m. All are invited. He asks people to call 203 – 821-1957 to donate money or food or equipment.