Ruth Virginia Boswell Lambert

Ruth played the viola and performed with the Baby Orchestra in Salt Lake City, Utah at the age of 6. She continued playing the viola both the high school and community orchestras. Her Grandfather Huff lived with the family after his wife died and taught Ruth to be a carpenter, a skill she used often throughout her life, building among other things bookshelves in her parents home for their extensive book collection. She loved singing around the piano with her whole family and eating dinner together every night.

She worked everyday after high school at Hedquist Drug Store in downtown Provo and was proud of her Jantzen sweaters bought with her own money.

She skipped 5th grade and graduated from high school at age 16. She started college at BYU that fall. Ruth graduated from BYU at age 20 with a degree in Physical Education and a teaching certificate and started teaching at Beaver High school in southern Utah soon after. She taught there with her best friend Ramona Reynolds who taught Drama. After 4 years Ramona got married and Ruth went on a mission for the LDS Church.

She served in the Central America Mission for 2 years from September 1953 to September 1955, learning Spanish, building sacrament benches in many of the new church buildings there, singing and teaching the Gospel of Jesus Christ to all who would listen. She served in Guatemala, El Salvador and Costa Rica.

While she was finishing up her mission, her parents and sister applied for a teaching job on her behalf in Kamas UT. She started teaching P.E. and Spanish immediately upon her return and was the pep club advisor at South Summit High. When Glen Lambert returned from his mission service in Southern CA they started dating and got married on September 7, 1956 in the Salt Lake Temple. They left for San Antonio TX for Glen's basic training in the Army almost immediately after the wedding, driving their '56 Chevy stuffed with all their belongings and furniture tied on top. After two years and the birth of Jan, their oldest daughter, they moved back to Provo, UT where Glen finished his Accounting degree and Virginia was born. Jobs took them to Tooelle, UT, San Gabriel, CA, where Carolyn was born, Gardena, CA, where Russell was born and Rialto, CA, where they lived for 28 years and finished raising their children.

Ruth was a protective mother with high expectations of her children, but also lots of fun and encouraged us to laugh at ourselves and be happy. She was loyal to her extended family and we traveled every year to a Boswell family reunion where we forged close friendships with our 39 cousins. Those friendships are still strong today. Ruth also loved her Lambert relatives and we regularly saw our 27 Lambert cousins. She never missed going to a niece or nephew's wedding if she could possibly be there.

During these years Ruth used her musical talents at church to lead the congregational singing, direct the ward choir, serve as the stake music chairperson, and sang with the "Singing Mothers" choral group. She taught early morning seminary for several years right here in this building. She also taught in the young women's program, went to Girl's camp, taught Relief Society, was a member of the Stake Relief Society Board, a faithful visiting teacher, and was in charge of the games for the annual Relief Society Bazaar.

She had breast cancer at the age of 50 and it was determined she was a "downwinder". In other words, her cancer was caused by exposure to Government testing of nuclear weapons in 1951-53 at the Nevada Test Site. Ruth taught school in Beaver, Utah, located "downwind" of the test site.

Ruth shared a love of books with her mother and many of her relatives. She filled our home with books. Ruth sold wheat grinders and books by appointment before finally opening an LDS bookstore in our home in 1972. Because of the layout of the house with one bedroom having an outside entrance, she was able to operate the store from home for many years until all of her kids were gone. She valued being home with her children and found a way to earn money without having to be away. She loved serving others by providing books they didn't have to send away for and she loved talking to people. She often found herself in deep Gospel discussions and/or counseling sessions with visitors to her bookstore. She attended yearly meetings of the LDS Booksellers Convention in Salt Lake City and often drove by herself from Southern California.

She eventually opened 3 more bookstores in San Bernardino by the mission office on Waterman Ave. and in Hemet after she and Glen moved there in 1991. She closed the Hemet store after a short time and moved it to Temecula. After my dad retired from his accounting practice, she employed him to run one store and she ran the other. Everyday in her 60's and 70's she and Glen got up in the morning and one headed to San Bernardino and the other went to Temecula.

Glen and Ruth lived in Hemet on a quiet isolated hill on 10 acres for 23 years and loved the people they met there at church. It was while preparing to go to one of her stores one Saturday morning that Ruth collapsed, having suffered a severe stroke. Glen cared for her faithfully for 11 and one-half years, until he died in January of 2013.

Since Glen's death, Jan has taken diligent care of Ruth, for which all of us are very grateful. We moved Ruth and Jan back into Ruth's former home here in Rialto and she lived a little over two years in familiar and fond surroundings before passing away.