Ruby Irene Reeser was born on her great uncle Jim and aunt Mary's farm in Bois d'Arc, Missouri, on August 3,1933. She died in Portland, Oregon on September 5, 2020 at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center. The cause was congestive heart failure.
After graduating from Wynadotte High School in 1951, where she most enjoyed playing the cello and the piano, she learned to operate a mechanical calculator known as a comptometer. That skill landed Ruby a job at the headquarters of TWA.
On May 31, 1952, she married David Reeser, her husband of 68 years. They met at Central Avenue Methodist Church, where their families attended services. After a three year courtship, he proposed at the Theodore Naish Scout Reservation at Inspiration Point.
After the war, the couple moved to Berkeley, California, where David attended graduate school and Ruby commuted to the San Francisco office of TWA. When their first child was born in 1955, Ruby left her job to focus on homemaking. She raised two daughters and a son, and helped the family move seven times up and down the West Coast as David's work required.
When her youngest child was in high school, she returned to work for several years as a billing clerk at Northwest Ice, a cold storage facility in Portland, Oregon, where she made lifelong friends. In her later years, she became an accomplished accordionist and played in several groups, including the Rose City Accordion Club and the Northwest Accordion Society. She loved spending time with her granddaughters, especially making chocolate chip cookies with them.
Ruby is preceded in death by her father Oscar Elvin Blanchard; her mother Velma Irene Blanchard, who was called by her middle name; and her sisters Barbara and Dolores.
She is survived by her husband David Merl Reeser; her sister Velma Elaine Hathaway; her children Deborah Marie Stahl, Kathy Ramonda Mason, and Warren David Reeser; and by her granddaughters Jennifer Lynne Stahl, Christine Marie Stahl, Natalie Gail Lucas, Emily Marie Mason, and Jordyn Helena Reeser. Her first great grandchild Annalise Eve Sherman, daughter of Jennifer Stahl, was born in 2017. Her second, Evelyn Grace Lucas, was born earlier this year in 2020.
In lieu of flowers, the family requests donations to the American Diabetes Association.
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