Marion Saltmarsh was born an unknown seaside community in New Hampshire, and met her future husband, Charles Partridge, fresh from law school, when he visited her father's Baptist church.
Marion always believed that she was the paragon of morals and virtue, but in reality, she was extremely cruel to those she didn't like; also she was more than a little bit selfish.
To some degree, she was Lucas Cross' only ally, because, characteristically, she selfishly thought of what he had done for her (he had built their kitchen shelves) and not that Selena would have been traumatized again.
She was instrumental in the vicious firing of Michael Rossi from his job as principal of the Peyton Place Schools, due to his unqualified support of Allison for writing her book, "Samuel's Castle".
After that, Roberta had been killed by her vicious daughter in-law, Jennifer Burbank Carter, when she pushed her down a flight of stairs, breaking her neck.