Above, Ruth with nieces Susan and Rachel. Below, at her job at Federal Lumber in North Minneapolis.

Ruth

By Susan Davis Butler, niece

My earliest memory of Aunt Ruth is when she and Uncle Raymond would come out to visit us on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon, probably for birthdays especially. I don’t believe she ever drove a car, so Uncle Raymond had to bring her. She brought us many gifts, like ceramic dolls she had painted and first-issue stamp sets, trying to get us interested in stamp collecting. Uncle Raymond started calling Sharon “Pinkie” when she was a baby, and the name stuck for a few years.

It seems she loved her nieces and nephews and being with us. I remember her throaty, bubbly laugh. She sometimes brought her accordion and played and sang, probably mostly hymns. I know she loved music and grew up singing with her father and others in the family who loved to sing.

Her home at 3810 Colfax Ave. N., Minneapolis, was fascinating to us. Mother cleaned for her some in the late 50s, and we would go along to “help,” but, really, we wanted to watch TV. (We watched anything but I especially remember shows like The Lone Ranger, I Love Lucy and Art Linkletter.) The house was small, but full of all her treasures, including her beloved cat, Putsin, who dined on chopped chicken giblets and other unsavory tidbits with which she thoroughly spoiled him. Because of all her knick-knacks, dusting was not a fun activity at her house; maybe that is where I acquired my distaste of dusting. Wayne remembers walking down the block to a small corner store for candy, a real treat for us country kids — walking to a store, not to mention the candy!

Rachel remembers that Aunt Ruth subscribed to LIFE magazine and THE SATURDAY EVENING POST, which we enjoyed looking at as we arranged them on her end tables. She remembers Aunt Ruth bringing the LIFE article about the 1956 death of Jim Elliot and his companions in Ecuador for us to see.

Aunt Ruth was responsible for taking some of the best photographs we have of the farm and her family. She probably was the first one to have a camera.

She attended Fourth Baptist Church in north Minneapolis faithfully, and loved her pastor, Dr. Richard Clearwaters. He spoke at her funeral in 1962.

I remember how sad it was to visit her in the hospital while she was in a coma before she died. Her death was very hard on Grandma; she never expected one of her dear children to die before she did.