Ruby Lucile Roberts

I was born March 29, 1921 on a farm approximately 17 miles NorthEast of St.Francis, Kansas,6-7- miles South of Nebraska state line. My Father stated it was a real blizzard that night and the Doctor had a very hard time getting there before I was born.

We lived on the farm until 1925 when we moved to Wheeler, Kansas, a small town of approximately 60 people and their dogs and cats.My Father operated the Equity Elevator there. There we lived intil the banks went broke (1929) and closed. The dust rolled in from Oklahoma. There was no rain, so no crops were raised, so the elevator closed which ,of course, made us move back to the farm.

While in Wheeler, my brothers Emmor and Hurb my Mother and I all had Diphtheria. Dad and Bebe didn't get it. The boys had it very hard, left Emmor with a heart murmur, and then my Mother was also left very weak with a family to care for.She died November 7,1928. We got the diphtheria from my cousin Wilbur when Aunt Marie and Uncle John came wirh their boys, Alvin and Wilbur, for an extended visit and Wilbur was sick when they got there with diphtheria. Diphtheria contributed to my Mother's death. Dad was left with 4 children to raise, Emmor 10,Hurb 9, Ruby,7, and Bebe,5.

In March of 1929- 5 months after my Mother died, Dad's sister ,Grace, lost her husband. Dad went to Missouri and brought Grace and her 6 children to live with us in a 5 room house. All but one were older than we 4 children and also my Dad"s Father (my Grandfather).

They fixed up our old sod house on the farm, built before the new big house was built, and after some time Aunt Grace and her 6 moved to the farm until the next March when they could get the big house from the renters. Grandpa had lived with us before Mother died and he remained with us in Wheeler.Grandpa died in 1932, the same year we moved back to the farm.In Wheeler, Our school in Wheeler had 2 classrooms. The 1st four grades in one room taught by Miss Nellie Waters and the 5-8th grades taught by Paul Moring.

Back on the farm 7 miles North and 1 mile East of Wheeler, my sister,Bebe, and I walked the mile to a one room schoolhouse-8 grades and one teacher. I graduated in the spring of 1935 from the 8th grade. We had to go to St. Francis and take our final exam in order to graduate and go to High School.There was one other 8th grader, a boy named Warren Cooper.2 weeks before final exams Bebe got a breaking out that the teacher thought was measles,which we had years before.Anyway,Mrs Cooper was afraid Warren would get whatever it was if I came to school the last 2 weeks, so in order to get a review for the exams, I had to walk 2 1/2 miles to another school for my review. Miss Lucille Dalley said they weren't afraid of me, so I was able to pass the exams 2 weeks later and graduate with all the other 8th graders in the county.

I had lots of unusual things that went with those 2 years on the farm before High School.We had dust bowl days, when the only daylight was in the morning before 10-11 AM,by 11 o'clock it would be so dark you couldn't see anywhere. Dad would come with a team of horses and wagon to take us home. So for a period of time we only had about 2 hours of school.

Then ther were the days the grasshoppers were so thick they ate off the tops of the fenceposts and every step you took you stepped on at least 6-8 grasshoppers. They stuck to your legs, arms, and back. I can still feel them. In those years we had several jack rabbit roundups that were interesting. The neighbors would all get together, chase them into a corner and take their ears for money.We walked or rode the pony everywhere, we called her Old Betty.

In September of 1935 I started high school and graduated after 4 years in May 1939. (In order to go to high school, Ruby lived in St. Francis with a lady named Ma Quigley who apparently let farm kids room with her during the week to go to school in exchange for housework. On the weekends Ruby went back out to the farm -about 17 miles out of townn- and did the laundry and cooked and baked for her Father and brothers and sister for the next week).

Ruby also wrote: From the age of seven we didn't have a washing machine so I did all the laundry by scrub board and 2 tubs of water. The boiler was put on the cook stove to heat the water, then the wet clothes were scrubbed by hand and put in the boiler of hot soapy water to keep them wet, sheets and all. It usually took 3 boilers of hot water and 3 or 4 tubs of water to rinse in, carried from the pump down the hill by the tank. It was a long hard day every Saturday or Monday.

Passed away on Feb. 28, 2010 in Aurora. She is preceded in death by her first husband Arnold Reasoner and second husband Edwin Roberts, brothers; Emmor and Herb Graves and sister BeBe Goerler. She is survived by her sons; Don (Linda) and Stan (Claudia) Reasoner, 4 grandsons, 7 great grandchildren, numerous nieces and nephews and cousins. A visitation will be Wed., March 3, from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m. at Olinger Chapel Hill Mortuary, 6601 S. Colorado Blvd, Littleton. A memorial service will be on Thurs., March 4, at 2:00 p.m. at Windsor Gardens, Centerpoint, 595 S. Clinton St., Denver, CO. Donations may be made in her name to the American Heart Association. To share a memory of Ruby, please visit www.Olingerchapelhill.com