Alice Christine “Christie” Roth, 55, formerly of Jerseyville, passed away at 10:41 a.m., Wednesday, June 5, 2024 at Barnes-Jewish Hospital in Saint Louis, Missouri.
She was born on April 30, 1969 in Jerseyville, Illinois to Joe and Judy Roth. Christie attended Fieldon Elementary School and Illini Middle School and graduated in 1987 as Salutatorian from Jersey Community High School. She went on to obtain her Bachelor’s Degree in Mathematics from Western Illinois University and her teaching certification from Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville.
She spent 17 years teaching mathematics at her alma mater, Jersey Community High School, where she also coached the girls bowling team; once being named “Coach of the Year”. Christie began bowling in the 2nd grade and continued to do so through college. Throughout her life, she continued to enjoy the sport, and bowled on several area leagues, where she made many lifelong friends.
Throughout her teaching career, Christie strived relentlessly to guide her students to success and taught with the highest level of teaching excellence. She had a delivery that was both gentle and powerful at the same time. She had command of the classroom and had control of every student’s attention span. Her ability to accomplish this was not due to the class being full of perfectly well behaved students, but rather rooted in a style she had of making every lesson interesting and important to each and every one of them. A student who may have slouched in geography or snoozed in civics would acquire a second wind as soon as they crossed the threshold of her classroom. Those who yawned in English or daydreamed in science sat up straight in Ms. Roth’s classroom and absorbed as much as they could from her. Her students and fellow teacher’s all respected Christie very much, perhaps because she showed so much respect for each of them.
In 2015, she made a career change and began her employment with the United States Postal Service. For the past 10 years, she was a Clerk at the Glen Carbon Post Office, where she enjoyed being able to socialize with her customers and coworkers.
For the past 8 years, Christie valiantly battled cancer, developing Leukemia three years ago. Just as she did with everything in life, she fought with a fierce determination and an unwavering spirit. While it was a hard road, a highlight of her fight was meeting Kelly Chase, a former Blues hockey player who was in remission for the same type of cancer and shared the same physician as Christie. He spent time encouraging her to continue to fight and she treasured the autographed jersey that he gave to her.
Everyone has thought, at one time or another, that Christie loved math more than anything else in life. It certainly appeared that way to all of her students because of the enthusiastic level of energy she put into helping them grasp certain concepts and master important skills. However, what Christie truly treasured most in life was her family, her friends and her students. Above all, she valued the relationships she had with each and every person that was a part of her life.
She was an avid sports fan and enjoyed attending numerous St. Louis Cardinals games with her parents and St. Louis Blues games with her brother to celebrate their birthdays. She loved golfing with family and in the 1980’s and 1990’s was an avid San Francisco 49ers fan, becoming a devout Kansas City Chiefs fan later in life. Weekends in her youth were spent visiting grandparents and all the cousins. Sunday dinners on the farm and playing cards at the other grandparents in the evening was the weekend routine. Later in life, some of her favorite pastimes were shopping and dining out at different restaurants.
She deeply loved her three nephews and treasured taking them bowling and cruising with them in her convertible, listening to her favorite 80’s hair bands. In 2022, she was blessed with the birth of her great niece, and enjoyed the past two years watching her grow.
Surviving are her parents, Joe and Judy Roth of Fieldon; a brother and sister in-law, Brian and Charity Roth of Jerseyville; three nephews, Jordan Roth, Trenton Roth and his fiancé, Abbie Olson and Aidan Roth, all of Jerseyville; her great niece, Violet; numerous aunts, uncles and cousins; as well as her longtime friend and former coworker, Patty Sprague.
Memorial Visitation will be held from 9 a.m. – 11 a.m., Saturday, June 15, 2024 at Crawford Funeral Home in Jerseyville. A Celebration of Life and Luncheon will also be held at the Fieldon United Church of Christ, Family Life Center beginning at 1 p.m.
Private burial will take place at Fieldon Cemetery.
In lieu of flowers or plants, memorials may be given to the Panther Athletic Club for the benefit of the bowling teams or to the Jersey Community Hospital Foundation.
Memories may be shared with the family by visiting www.crawfordfunerals.com
