Roberts was on the staff of Speaker of the House Sam Rayburn of Texas, working in Washington, D.C., between 1941 and 1942 before going on active duty in World War II. After the war, he worked as a farmer and entered into agribusiness. He was a member of the Texas State Senate from 1955 to 1961, serving as the president pro tempore of the body in 1961.
U.S. House of Representatives
Roberts was elected as a Democrat to the Eighty-seventh Congress, by special election, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Sam Rayburn. He was re-elected to the nine succeeding Congresses, serving from January 30, 1962, to January 3, 1981.
On November 22, 1963, Roberts was in the Dallas motorcade when President John F. Kennedy was assassinated. He was riding in the same car as the Dallas Mayor Earl Cabell, and the mayor's wife. Their car was four cars behind the limousine carrying JFK. The family of Ray Roberts can confirm that the Warren Commission or any other of its investigation personnel never asked Roberts a single question about the shooting. When Mrs. Cabell testified to the Warren Commission, she stated that shortly after the shots ended Roberts first said, "That is a .30-06." (with Roberts meaning the shot(s) he could hear sounded like they were fired from a .30-06 type of rifle) and that Roberts had told her that he had also smelled the distinct odor of gun smoke (as did Mrs. Cabell and several other motorcade participants and witnesses who were all located down at street level, which was up-wind from the Texas School Book Depository, and 61' to 82' below and varying distances away from its sixth floor)[1]
His official documents from his years in office both in the Texas State Senate as well as the U.S. House of Representatives can be found in the archives at Texas A&M-Commerce, which used to be known as East Texas State University.
His only brother was Roy Geldon Roberts Sr. of Plano.
References
^Elizabeth Cabell testimony to the Warren Commission, volume 7, starting at page 485 — The Testimony of Mrs. Earle Cabell. Retrieved 09 August 2012.
