06:18 PM CDT on Monday, May 22, 2006

By DAN RONAN / WFAA-TV

Family photo

James and Mary Roberson

Over two weeks after 83-year-old James Roberson was arrested for fatally shooting his ill wife Mary and attempting to kill himself, the elderly man passed away from his own illness.

Roberson and his dead wife were discovered April 25 after he shot her and then turned the gun on himself, which jammed, sources said.

Last week, Roberson died of brain cancer.

The couple's daughter, Sally Roberson, said she loved and admired her father, and was especially proud of how he cared for his wife of 60 years.

"He adored mother," she said. "They adored each other."

In 1992, Mary Roberson suffered a serious stroke, and last year another stroke put her in a nursing home.

"That was something he did not want for mother," Roberson said.

In January, with Mary back home, Roberson then learned he had terminal brain cancer, and Sally Roberson said her father was afraid Mary would end up in a nursing home once again.

That was when he was said to have planned a murder-suicide. However, ballistic tests confirmed that the ammunition was too old and Roberson's plan to kill himself failed.

James and Mary Roberson married after he returned from World War II and they raised two children together.

He worked for the phone company and she taught school. They were active in their church and their south Dallas neighborhood.

Before James Roberson died Wednesday, 23 days after being released from jail, he made one final request to the family's priest.

"Dad said, 'Can I be forgiven?'" Roberson said. "And Father Poole said, 'James, all you have to do is ask and he said, 'Oh, I have done that. I certainly asked.' And he said, 'You are forgiven.'"

The family is planning a joint memorial service for the couple next month.

E-mail dronan@wfaa.com