Duerksen, Ruth Arlean King (1914-1983)

Mennonite Weekly Review obituary: 1983 Jul 7 p. 8

Birth date: 1914 Dec 20

text of obituary:

NEWTON & VICINITY

● Burial services for Ruth Arlean Duerksen, who died June 22 at Ulysses, were held June 25 at Eastlawn Cemetery in Hesston. Officiating were Paul Friesen and Milo Kaufman. The funeral service was held earlier in the day at the Mennonite Brethren church in Ulysses with Byron Neufeld officiating. Born Dec. 20, 1914, at Smithville, Ohio, she was married to John P. Duerksen. They lived in Iowa, Pennsylvania and in the Newton-Hesston area before moving to Ulysses.

‘’Mennonite Weekly Review’‘ obituary: 1983 Jul 21 p. 11

text of obituary:

RUTH KING DUERKSEN

Ruth King Duerksen was born to Elmer J. and Sarah Malinda (Yoder) King near Smithville, Ohio, on Dec. 20, 1914, and died June 22, 1983, at the age of 68.

She attended public schools in the West Liberty, Ohio, area and then attended Goshen (Ind.) College, from which she graduated with a B.S. in education and Th.B. in 1939. Following graduation she was married to John P. Duerksen. They moved to Hesston, Kan., where both assumed positions on the faculty at Hesston College. They became members of the Hesston Mennonite Church, which her husband served as pastor for one year.

Following a 35-year residency in Hesston they moved to Perkasie, Pa., and two years later they moved to Ulysses, Kan., where her husband became chaplain of Bob Wilson Memorial Hospital. She also was employed at the hospital, first as office assistant and later as librarian. She was elected librarian of the Mennonite Brethren Church for several years.

In January 1981 it was learned that she had cancer and she died June 22, 1983.

She is survived by her husband; son John and wife Belle and their children Jodi and John; daughter Becky and husband Stanley Oswald and their children Christopher, Benjamin and Anthony; a sister Naomi, and husband Lester Slonecker; and three brothers and their wives, Loren and Dorothy King, Floyd and Cleta King, and Forest and Irene King all of West Liberty, Ohio.

Funeral services were held at the Ulysses Mennonite Brethren Church on June 25. Burial was held the same day at East Lawn Cemetery, Hesston. A fellowship memorial service was held at Hesston following the interment.