Naomi Lee Ross

Naomi Lee Collins was born on April 3, 1927, in Meade, Kansas. Her parents were Orville LaCoss Collins and Lila Jane Hoskins. They lived on a property near Meade, where they farmed the land.Naomi was often called “Nicky.” She was the middle child, between sisters Opal and Barbara. The girls cherished lifelong memories of their Kansas childhood, where they ran wild and barefooted among the sunflowers.

When the sisters were young teenagers, their parents separated, and this changed their lives. They left the farm, and they grieved the loss of their father Orville, who played the fiddle at barn dances and loved them very much. For a time, the sisters lived with various relatives in Kansas and Oklahoma, eventually migrating to Borger, Texas, where their mother had remarried.

Higher education was not an option for them. During the war years, Naomi and her sisters worked at the Carbon Black plant near Borger. These were jobs usually performed by men, but as part of the War effort, women took the jobs. Naomi became a real-life Rosie the Riveter.The work was dirty and strenuous. The girls covered their hair, and rubbed cold cream into their exposed faces. But the carbon black— a material produced by the incomplete combustion of petroleum products— was absorbed by their skin. Naomi related that it took months after the War for all the carbon to be sweated out of their bodies.

The War ended. Men came home and resumed the strenuous jobs. In a short time, Naomi, along with her sisters, relocated to Amarillo, Texas, where they supported themselves. They continued to work hard and to be independent. Naomi met Joseph Spielberg Ross, a returning veteran stationed at Amarillo Air Force Base. Joe was nine years older than Naomi, with many combat missions under his belt. He was handsome, confident, and clever. They were married on June 26, 1945.

Naomi and Joe moved to New York City, where Joe had grown up as the child of Eastern European immigrants. This was a new world for the Kansas girl, but she loved New York. Their daughter Linda Sue was born there in 1947, and their son John Charles in 1950. Naomi enjoyed putting both babies into a big carriage and wheeling them to Central Park to feed the pigeons. Naomi’s mother and step-father invited Naomi and Joe to join them in Borger, Texas, where they needed help in their dry cleaning business. So, the young Ross family left New York and headed back to Texas.

Texas was where they welcomed their third child, Christine Lee, in 1951. Over the years, they lived in Amarillo, Borger, and in Stinnett, where all three Ross children attended school. Some time after their children left the nest, Naomi and Joe returned to Amarillo, where their son John and his family lived. Naomi always wanted and needed to work, so she took up factory work for many years. She worked for Levi Strauss, where she sewed blue denim jeans. And then later for Bell Helicopter, where she helped to build parts for the aircraft and assemble them. She was Rosie the Riveter again! She finally retired from Bell.

Naomi Lee Ross was a woman of many talents. She was an artist and a seamstress. She loved the outdoors. She took her children, and then her grandchildren, hiking across the countryside. She told them stories along the way, relating how the early settlers lived. She read books avidly. She taught her children to sew, and she made beautiful clothing for them. She loved poetry and music. She made custom draperies for people, and was a skilled tailor.

Naomi painted in oils, even when there was little money for brushes and canvas. She taught her children to look for the beauties of nature. To observe the way the light shone through wispy grass at the side of the road. And to identify not just a green pasture, but how many different shades of color lived in the shadows of a scene. Naomi lived the last few years of her life in Mansfield Nursing Center, where everyone called her Meemaw. She passed away on September 12, 2021at the age of 94 years.

Naomi is survived by son John Ross and wife Jane of Ft. Worth, daughter Christine O’Connor and husband James of Midlothian, daughter Sue McMurphy of Tulsa, seven grandchildren, and nineteen great-grandchildren.

Naomi was preceded in death by her husband Joseph Ross, a grandson Jeremy Ross, sisters Opal Lorraine Holcomb and Barbara Jane Christman, a brother Robert Palmeter, son-in-law James McMurphy, and her parents Orville Collins and Lila Palmeter.