Mpls, MN - Roberta Alice Bonnema Oliven, born in Oak Park, IL October 3, 1932, went home on February 2, 2026. She died peacefully in her sleep after a day spent with loving family.

Roberta fiercely believed she was here to make the world a better place and to "always think of the other guy." At Cornell College, she majored in French rather than math, so her skills would not be in the service of war. In graduate school at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, she met and fell in love with Conrad Oliven, whose family escaped the Holocaust. Following her own mind, she left him on the dock to teach English in Nice, France for a year. She returned to become a housewife who followed her husband's career changes, moving five times in five years, landing in New York City. Their next move was to have been to Nigeria, with three young children. Conrad's sudden death led her, instead, back to the Midwest.

Teaching French in Naperville, IL, she met her second husband, Kenneth Qualkenbush. Eventually, they put down roots in a new home in Chicago, where the family grew to six. After graduating in 1982 from Northwestern University Law School, Roberta started a new career as a neighborhood attorney with a private practice on Morse Avenue, helping many who could not afford to pay.

Always the trailblazer, later in life she started her own journey of self-discovery, as a Seeker. She attended the Parliament of the World's Religions, went to France, India, and Bali, deepening her spirituality, and started a healing practice.

She finally settled in Minneapolis near her daughter, Laura, and family and was a regular at Shabbat dinners and the Vedanta Society. She doted on her grandchildren and lovingly baked (and mailed) birthday cakes and Christmas cookies made to order (always from scratch). She enjoyed listening to and singing along with Handel's Messiah. She loved to greet her children in the morning with, "This is the day the Lord hath made, let us rejoice and be glad in it." She touched many lives, was greatly loved, and will be deeply missed.

Her legacy includes her children, Catherine Oliven (Richard Murdock), Laura Oliven Silberfarb (Stephen Silberfarb), Gregory Oliven (Lyubomira Buresch), Paul (Lauran) Qualkenbush, her grandchildren Elsa Costa (Edward Kim), Rebecca (Abby) Silberfarb, Gavriela Silberfarb, Benjamin, Caleb and Daniel Oliven, Jasmina and Eugene Buresch, Jack, Miller, Scarlett and Fiona Qualkenbush, and great-grandson Maxwell Silberfarb. She is survived by siblings Dorothy (Robert) Williams, Lois (Donald) Schwartz and Laura (Terrence) Marsh. She is predeceased by her parents, William and Hazel Bonnema, her first husband Conrad Oliven (d. 1965), and former husband Kenneth Qualkenbush (d. 2018).

The immediate family is holding a private celebration of life. Donations can be made to the charity of your choice in Roberta's memory and honor.