Ruth, Edna L. (1888-1968)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1968 Nov 21 p. 8

Birth date: 1888 Nov 12

Text of obituary:

. . .

• Funeral services for Miss Edna L. Ruth, a lifelong resident of the Halstead community, were held at the First Mennonite church there on Nov. 14, with Rev. Melvin Schmidt and Dr. D. C. Wedel officiating. Miss Ruth, a retired violin teacher and millinery shop clerk, died on Nov. 12, her 80th birthday. She was a member of the Kansas Archeology Society and the Wichita Audubon Club. A sister, Alma, of the home survives.

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The Mennonite obituary: 1968 Dec 3 p. 754

Text of obituary:

Edna L. Ruth, First Church, Halstead, Kan., was born Nov. 12, 1888, and died Nov. 12.

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Funeral program biographical sketch

IN MEMORIUM

Edna L. Ruth, daughter of Henry G. and Mary Hirschler Ruth, was born November 12, 1888, in Garden Township, Harvey County, and passed away on her eightieth birthday, at 2:15 A.M. at the Halstead Hospital, November 12, 1968, of leukemia complicated by pneumonia. She had been ill with leukemia since March, 1966 but despite physical difficulties continued to enjoy her friends, and took an active interest in activities about her. Surviving in the home are her older sister, Miss Alma Ruth, and her niece, Mrs. Ruth Rose.

In the Grades she attended Liberty School, District 78 in the country, and graduated from Moundridge High School in 1906 under Professor David Richert. Round robin class letters and a 50th anniversary Class Reunion in 1956 were greatly enjoyed.

She was baptized in the Garden Mennonite Church in 1903 by the late Rev. S. S. Baumgartner and continued to work in the Church after moving to Haistead in 1913, teaching in Sunday School, working in Christian Endeavor, in the Mission Society, and singing in the choir, or in quartets as she had a deep melodious contralto voice. At the time of her ser vice as church secretary she helped to tarnsiate the Church Consitution from German to English. During World War I she took a Red Cross Nursing course and was always a faith ful nurse for the family.

Many talents were hers, among them the love of poetry and the ability to readily memorize all of her favorite poems. She often memorized poems while ironing. Her readings were particularly enjoyable, say on a moonlight boating ride while lazily rowing up our Little River.

At the age of 27 she took up violin, studying under the late Edgar Hege, and later had her own violin pupils. Then followed many years of home music ensembles, with voice, violin, piano, reed organ, perhaps with the addition of a second violin, a cello or flute by members of the family.

In 1942 she became deeply interested in amateur ornithology and there followed many pleasurable years, filled with nature study, detailed study of birds, daily diaries, field trips on foot or by boat, always Christmas Counts, and for several years, Junior Audubon classes. This led naturally to her publishing articles in magazines, such as the one on the Townsend’s Solitaire, “Singer of the Mountains” published in Audubon Magazine, November-December 1951; on the Inca Dove in Nature Magazine (now Natural History) in 1952; on the Bay-breasted ‘Warbler in the Kansas Ornithological Soc. Bulletin in 1953; on the Kaufman Museum at Bethel — “The Museum That Grew Up and went to College,” published in Nature Magazine in 1956; and other things. She was a contributor to the 12-volume Audubon Nature Encyclopedia published in 1964.

In 1954 she learned to drive a ear. With what joy she took to the wheel of “Topsy” Ford while traipsing thru 32 states, ‘and putting 119,000 miles on the speedometer, always with lists of area birders and Pettingill’s Guides to Birding West, or East, of the Mississippi. These safaries included trips to Colorado Springs, Salida and the Collegiates in 1956, later various parts of the Ozarks lake and springs country; Weatherford, Oklahoma and the Wichita Mountains in 1957; Rochester, Minnesota; the North Shore of Lake Superior and Lake Itasca in 1958; the West Coast in 1959 with stops at the Grand Canyon, the Los Angeles and Reedley areas, Grants Park, Yosemite, Portland, Seattle, and the Black Hills; in 1960 New Mexico and the Tuscon Phoenix-Flagstaff areas; in 1961 the Great Smokies and Asheville, North Carolina; in 1962 the National Aubudon Society meeting at Corpus Christi, with return thru Louisiana and Arkansas; in 1963, Hannibal, Missouri, Springfield Illinois, Henderson, Mammoth Cave and Kentucky Lake, and Big Springs Missouri; Huron, South Dakota by way of Kansas City in 1964; in 1965, Florida by way of the Gulf Coast, from Pensacola to Key West with Ft. Lauderdale as the base, and home by way of Charleston, South Carolina; the Eureka Springs, Arkansas lake region in 1966; plus many lesser field trips to Cheyenne Bottoms, Salt Plains Wildlife Refuge and other areas in Kansas and Oklahoma. Until her health failed, she was active in the Kansas Ornithological, and the Wichita Audubon Societies, and helped to further organizing the Sand Prairies Nature Conservency.

She had a ready wit and a great gift for making friends; she loved people, all ages, and spent much time visiting shutins. She fought her battle with leukemia with spirit and grace, and a great faith in her ultimate destination.

Among her papers were found the following poem:

My Treasure Chest

I’ve gathered up those dearer things
With which I would not part,

And laid them carefully away,
yet close beside my heart;
Those things on which Time
has no lien, The Things I love the best —

The priceless things more dear
than life — These are my treasure chest.

My confidence in fellowman
And my belief in God;
The heritage of my old home
Deep rooted in th’e sod;
My rosary of sorrow, My
beatitude of tears;
The glory of my mother’s love
Still shining thru the years;

The fullness of the summer
moon, the o’er-flowing harvest horn,
The whiteness of a winter
night, The flowers of April’s morn;
The soul that lurks within a
song, The faith within a child,
The beauty that all nature
holds, For one who loves the wild;

Mere wisdom never can replace
Illusions fair of youth,
And yet these things I’ve
hoarded up And wrapped about with truth
Are recompense for all the
days. They’ll stand the final test
Of the fit and the eternal, Deep
within my treasure chest.

(—Will S. Denham)