Ruby Robinette

While it is impossible to squeeze her 96 year story of “livin” onto a 3 by 5 card, these are the brief facts about Ruby Margaret Roberts Robinette and her fearfully wonderful life. Ruby was born January 5, 1918 in Furnas County, Nebraska. Ruby grew up on a farm in Nebraska doing what kids did back in the 1920’s on a farm. She had seven sisters and one brother. She had to help milk the cows in the morning, turn them out to pasture and bring them back in for milking in the evening. She went to school in a one room school house with grades one through eight. They also owned hogs that ate corn on the cob. She remembered picking up the cobs and using them as wood for fuel in the stove. When she was 12 years old, to better the family lifestyle, they moved to Vernon, Colorado 144 miles from Furnas and rented a farm for 1/5th of the year’s crops. She lived there till she came to Denver. She and her sisters would use a spring wagon to go to school. They would hitch up a white horse named Polly who was blind, that would go where ever it was led. One day Polly got scared and ran into a ditch, wagon and all. The kids were frightened and lived through the ordeal with no major injuries. Queen was another horse they owned and was very skittish and spooked easily. They always had to hold her head while the kids got into the wagon to calm her nerves. Then let her head go and run to get into the wagon as Queen took off on their journey. One story shared by Ruby about her school days was the day she cut her ear when she playfully backed into a barbed wire fence. There was lots of commotion about her injury and the teacher sent her home with her sister, in the wagon so her mom could bandage and take care of the bloody ear. One year the school teacher lived with Ruby and her family. Although the teacher had to adapt to the size and constant activity of a farm family of 11 people, the teacher didn’t mind and came to love all the noise and kids running around and said, “It reminded her of home.” Ruby came 174.2 miles to Denver for the first time when she was 15 or 16 and stayed with her older sister, Hazel and her husband Red for the summer. The next summer she again came to Denver and this time found work at a restaurant located in Denargo Market a farmers market area in Denver, located north of what is now Coor’s Field the Colorado Rockies Stadium. There she washed dishes and then became the famous waitress, “Miz Ruby”. Ruby had a friend who invited her to go to the Greeley Frontier Days on July 4th with her boyfriend and his friend, who turned out to be Ernest. They met on July 4, 1939 and didn’t waste any time. Ruby married Ernest 12 days later on July 16, 1939. It was a small wedding and Ernest’s roommate didn’t believe Ernest when he said he was getting married and was so surprised when Ernest and Ruby showed up at the apartment after their wedding that he quickly gathered his stuff and left. Not sure if he every returned or kept in contact with Ernest, because he was truly embarrassed about not believing what his roommate had told him Their first residence was on Newton Street in Denver. That was their residence, while Ernest went to war. And both Ruth and George were born there. There also is a story that Ruby and Ernest’s really first abode was in a house-tent. These were pop-up structures used in the forty’s to provide housing for the large influx of G Is brought here by the war. Their second residence was on Kalamath Street about a block and a half north of Alameda in Denver. When George was three years old, he was hit by a car and lived to tell about it. Ruby and Ernest bought the house on Wesley in September of 1946. And while Ruby enjoyed the luxury of a hospital bed and birth of Sally May, Ernest moved the family to the new house. Ruby went home with a new baby girl in her arms and a house full of chaos and confusion and half of their things missing and a husband who didn’t have any idea where it all went. His memory lapse became a comical story for years when she would wish for this little tool or that favorite pot or pan. She raised her six children in this house. In 1968 Ernest lost his life in an auto accident and Ruby had Charles in college at home and, Mary and Doyle yet to raise. She had to take over the family finances and adapt her life to single parenthood. Provider, adviser, teacher, disciplinarian and matriarch became her new titles in life. She clung to her faith in God, salvation; the promises and wisdom of scripture as she entered into this uncharted time in her life. She worked outside the home in several retail businesses until she retired. Ruby and the kids cleaned Gethsemane Baptist Church for years and took in Ironing from different people in the area to earn extra money for her family. She adapted that home to meet the needs of her family. At one point that residence housed twelve people and they all shared ONE bathroom. Ruby took care of lots of her grandchildren over the years and was a rock in many of their lives. Many memories, schemes, plots and plans were developed and made at 2195 West Wesley and will always be the place called home to a plethora of folks. She enjoyed gardening and her yard for many years; she had chickens for years that provided fresh eggs and chicken dinners and lots of chores for everybody in the family. She loved fresh peaches, apples, apricots, crab apples and ground cherries and mulberries that made appearances in her yard and pantry over the years. And although she didn’t get a chance to enjoy this year’s crop, she had two large patio pots featuring four foot high tomato plants laden with blooms and fruit, now residing with Doyle and Karen her youngest son and daughter-in-law. Ruby loved watching grand kids, great-grandkids and great-great grandkids play and enjoyed talking with them about the “Good Ole Days”. She knew every kid’s name and birthdate and for years kept up with birthday and Christmas cards for everyone until the post office insisted she get her own zip code. In her later years she was an avid reader of western stories, especially any “Louis Lamour” books. She enjoyed all the old Western shows on television and actors like Gene Autry, John Wayne, Roy Rodgers and all the old actors that really knew how to act. She enjoyed having company spend time with her and going to each of her family’s homes for birthday parties and get-to-gathers. Ruby celebrated her 96th birthday in January of this year, with a gorgeous cake and surrounded by family and friends. Ruby lived the life of Ann of Green Gables, Laura Engle’s Wilder and Cinderella all rolled into one. She experienced all the Love and Laughter, Joys and Sorrows, Highs and Lows and Happenings of life. Ruby knew the simple complexities and rhythms of country life, the transitions to city-life, the joy of love, marriage and motherhood, grandmother, great grandmother and great- great- grand motherhood. She experienced the fear of a husband in the battles of war and the fears loss. She raised children to be successful, independent and strong. She taught them all the love of God and promises of scripture and lived a life of Faith. Her bible is well worn and marked, underlined, tab-eared and tear stained from all her hours of reading and studying. The twenty third psalms, the Lord’s Prayer are underlined and binding bent from all the times, she has turned there. Ruby really lived her life and squeezed every ounce of living into it, she loved, laughed and cared for us all and tried to the very end to communicate with each of us that visited her bedside. As she slipped into eternity at 1:05 A.M. Thursday morning on August 14th 2014, she took two peaceful breaths and crossed over into the arms of God, her loving heavenly father and his son Jesus Christ the author and finisher of life and faith. Hebrew 12:2 Ruby is survived by 5 children, 23 Grandchildren, 43 Great Grandchildren, 22 Great-Great Grandchildren and at last count 2 in the womb, and many, many friends.