She was the first African-American woman to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court, and is the mother of former NFL offensive lineman Willie Roaf.
[1] For more than a decade, Roaf pursued a career in the sciences, working as a bacteriologist for the Michigan Department of Health and then for the United States Food and Drug Administration in Washington, D.C.
[2] In 1995 Governor Jim Guy Tucker appointed her to fill a seat on the Arkansas Supreme Court that had become vacant due to the retirement of Justice Steele Hays.
Prohibited by law from running for re-election, she was appointed by Governor Mike Huckabee to a position on the Arkansas Court of Appeals, where she served until 2006.
[1][2] They had four children, including former American football player Willie Roaf, an offensive tackle for the New Orleans Saints and Kansas City Chiefs of the NFL who went to 11 Pro Bowls[7] and was elected to the Pro Football Hall of Fame in 2012,[8] and Phoebe Alison Roaf, an Episcopal priest who is the Bishop of West Tennessee.