SISTER M. ROBERTA (ELISABETH) FROHNAPFEL, SAC a member of the Pallottine Missionary Sisters, died Wednesday, June 1, 2016, at the age of 90 at St. Mary's Convent Infirmary in Huntington, W.Va. She was born on July 27, 1925 in Meighen, Marshall County, WV, the daughter of the late Leonard and Adda Shuttler Frohnapfel. She was the youngest of four children. She was preceded in death by her brother: Melvin Frohnapfel, and two sisters: Marie Yeager and Catherine Fox. She is survived by a number of neices and nephews. Sr. Roberta graduated from Moundsville High School in 1943 and entered the Pallottine Missionary Sisters in Huntington, WV on September 8, 1944. She made her first profession of vows on August 15, 1947. She spent the next three years doing catechetical work in Ashkum, IL and surrounding parishes. In 1950 Sister Roberta started her college education at the Catholic University of America in Washington D.C. but transferred the following year to St. Louis University where she earned her BS in Commerce in 1951. After graduation Sister Roberta returned to Huntington, WV where she was appointed Business Manager at St. Mary’s Hospital. She served in that capacity until 1968 when she was appointed as the first American born Provincial of the North American Province of the Pallottine Missionary Sisters, a position she held until 1977.
In 1977 Sister was transferred to St. Joseph’s Hospital in Buckhannon, WV where she served first in the Accounting Department 1977-1986, then as Director of Finance 1992-98, and then as VP of Support Services until 2009. In addition to her work there she also served as Treasurer of the Pallottine Missionary Sisters from 2004 until she she was forced to retire due to illness in 2009. Since that time she has been a resident in the Sisters Infirmary at St. Mary’s Medical Center in Huntington WV. Visitation will be on Friday June 3, 2016 at St. Mary’s Medical Center Chapel, on the First Floor East Wing from 4:30–7 p.m. Visitation will close with a Wake Service in the Hospital Chapel at 7:00 p.m. Visitation will resume Saturday morning at 9 a.m. until time for the funeral. The Mass of Resurrection will be on Saturday June 4, 2016, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary’s Medical Center Chapel. Burial will follow at Spring Hill Cemetery in Huntington, West Virginia. Reger Funeral Home is in charge of the arrangements.