Ruthe Pinson Wysong

Ruthe Pinson Wysong, age 101, of Lakeside and Bonita, California passed away at Chula Vista on Monday, September 18, 2023. Ruthe was born in the home of her parents, Frank Pinson and Ida Robinson Pinson in Milo, Martin County, Kentucky. Her father was killed on February 22, 1929 by a slate fall inside a coal mine at Puritan Mines.

Ruthe attended elementary school at Puritan Mines, Mingo County, West Virginia and at Cassell School in Martin County, Kentucky. She played guitar, sang and was a cheerleader and Assistant to the Principal at Inez High School in Martin County, Kentucky. Her Senior Class had only 26 Seniors, but her High School won the Kentucky State Basketball Championship her Senior Year.

She went to Cosmetology School at the Hellems School of Beauty in Lexington, Kentucky and returned to work for one year to pay off her tuition to her sister, Garnette, at the Inez Style Shop.

She took the Greyhound Bus in 1943 to Dayton, Ohio with her 1st cousin, Carrie Fannin, to get jobs in the war industry. She worked for the Univis Lens Company and assembled bifocal and trifocal lenses before they were processed in a high temperature oven.

She met a coworker, Carl Edwin Wysong, a USMC Veteran of the Battle of Iwo Jima that returned for his old job in Feb 1946. They dated a few months and were married on Thanksgiving Day - November 28, 1946.

A son, Gary, was born in Dayton on October 9, 1947. Univis Lens had a labor strike and the family moved in June 1948 to southern California. The family lived in Cudahy near Los Angeles, Valley Center, Vista, La Jolla, Clairemont and Lakeside, California. Two Daughters were born in La Jolla, Carla on February 16, 1952 and Stacy on April 9, 1958.

She was widowed on April 20, 1971 and became a strong and independent woman. She sold her larger home in Lakeside in 1973 and purchased a 2 bedroom home, just one mile away in Lakeside with the equity from the sale and $2,000.

Ruthe did Childcare work in Clairemont in the 1960's, was Manager of the Lakeside Coin Laundry near Lindo Lake from 1971-1984 and worked for Remedy Homecare in El Cajon from 1975-1980.

She was a regular shopper at the Aero Drive-In Theater Swap Meet in El Cajon until it closed in early 1999 and loved to collect sterling silver Native American jewelry, turquoise jewelry, clowns, hummingbird objects, teddy bears, purses, cowgirl boots and any clothing with a leopard pattern.

She gave up driving in July 2006 at age 84.

She moved in with Gary and his wife, Ann, in their home in Bonita in January 2017.

Her health changed and at the age of 100, moved in March 2022 into the Gentle Hearts Assisted Living Home in Chula Vista, where she was given wonderful care for the next 1 1/2 years.

We are grateful to her Kaiser family practice physician, Khoa Nguyen, M.D., who cared for her for 13 years.

We are also very grateful to Jullia Arrida, her mother, Beth, and all the caregiver staff at Gentle Hearts.

She was a wonderful mother and friend, gentle and kind, who took very good care of her children.

She leaves 3 children: Gary (Ann), Carla (Mario Baco) and Stacy (Sid Rodney), 5 grandchildren and 9 great grandchildren.

Ruthe loved all of her family, regularly asked how they were doing and cherished every opportunity to see them and hug them.

She will be greatly missed and we will keep her memory alive in our hearts forever.

Fond memories and expressions of sympathy may be shared at www.sorrentovalleychapel.com for the Wysong family.