Ruby Jewell Bowles

Ruby Jewell Bowles was born on July 23, 1924 to J. Olin Johnson and Ruby (Cummins) Johnson in Scranton, Arkansas and passed from this life on July 10, 2023. Ruby married Noel McCuen Bowles on January 15, 1946. They had three sons, John Ronald and wife Diana of Edmond, Oklahoma, David Noel and wife Sherri of Oklahoma City and Charles Randall and wife Lisa of Luther, Oklahoma. Ruby also had five grandchildren, fifteen great-grandchildren, three great-great-grandchildren and numerous nieces, nephews and friends.

Noel and Ruby settled in Oklahoma City in the 1940s, where Ruby raised the three boys while working various jobs, including being employed at Western Electric, where she retired in 1987. They were charter members of Highland Landmark Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City. Ruby was the pianist at Highland for 70 years. Ruby and Noel were active in the church, helping to build the building and working with the church camp they attended at Cedar Hills in western Oklahoma (many of the curtains she made for the dorms are still there today). Ruby loved playing the piano, even giving lessons to many people.

Noel and Ruby became Mema and Papa to their grandkids starting in 1977 and were known as Mema and Papa to everyone after that. Their home was the gathering place for their church, their family, and their friends and was always open to anyone who needed a place to stay or a warm meal. Ruby loved cooking and feeding people, raising her flowers and garden, camping, fishing, feeding her fish, spending time on her porch swing and watching all the kids play in the pool, even though she couldn’t swim. She never had a bad word to say about anyone. She loved everyone and was loved by so many. Her life impacted everyone she met and is a shining example of the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31.

Ruby was preceded in death by her parents, her husband and her sister, Molly Sue McMinn. Pallbearers are her great-grandsons, Isaac Lombard, Jackson Heflin, McCuen Bowles, Jacob Lombard, Hayden Bowles and Logan Bowles. Honorary pallbearers include Sam Hasty, John Ryan Bowles, Aaron Heflin, Chris Bowles and Cash Hasty.

A come-and-go visitation for Ruby will be held Thursday, July 13, 2023 from 1:00 PM to 6:00 PM at Baggerley Funeral Home, 930 South Broadway, Edmond, OK 73034. Funeral service will occur Friday, July 14, 2023 at 10:00 AM at Highland Landmark Missionary, 2600 NW 57th St., Oklahoma City, OK 73112, with burial to follow to Rose Hill Burial Park, 6001 Northwest Grand Blvd, Oklahoma City, OK 73118.

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