Ruth Laverne Gipson Ballard

Ruth was born on August 1, 1936. She passed and went to live with our LORD on January 15, 2025, In Grayson County.

Ruth was born in Fort Worth, Texas to Martin Luther Gipson and Roxy Elizabeth Vance Gipson. She was the youngest of 5 siblings. When she was 5 years old, on December 7, 1941, during the Attack on Pearl Harbor in Hawaii. Ruth was sent to her grandmother house to sit with the aged woman whom she barely knew. She was afraid and did not understand the reason for the strange behavior of the people around her the chaos on that Sunday Afternoon. Ruth was an excellent Student and graduated from R. L Paschal high school at the age of 16 with honors in 1953. As a teenager Ruth worked at Woolworths in Downtown Fort Worth, Texas.

She married on May 1, 1954, to Lawrence Ballard in Fort Worth, Texas. One year later they started a family, and their daughter Linda was born. Ruth went back to work at the Convair Bomber Plant in Fort Worth, Texas until their second daughter Sherri was born in Fort Worth, Texas in 1961. Ruth was a stay-at-home mother in the early sixties and had their third child, a son David Lawrence Ballard in 1962.

By 1965, she was becoming a self-made business owner and opened a venetian blind repair service with her mother and father named B & G Blind Shop. She would travel to Dallas Texas to get the supplies; Dallas was to the closest supplier, and this was prior to any interstates to Dallas , it was quite a journey.

In 1968, Ruth and Lawrence divorced, and she started going to school at UT Arlington and Tarrant County Jr. College to get an education in accounting management to start a New Career with the US Government. She started out as a Clerk Typist with minimal income during day and worked evenings at her local A & P Grocery. With the support of her parents, she was able to work and raise her children as a single mom. When the radio broke in the car instead of repairing it, she would teach her children gospel songs.

She was a faithful member of South Hills Baptist Church and raised her children to love the Lord. Ruth was outspoken when it came to right or wrong and if you were doing something wrong she did not hesitate to tell her children what she thought was right, even if they didn’t always do what she wanted.

She loved to travel, and she would take her kids on bus trips to Arkansas, Beaches in Texas and Washington D. C. With her children and grandchildren, she would always encourage higher education.

She retired from the U. S; Government after 34 years in a Senior Management position. After working in many areas of the country for the U.S. Government. After retirement she traveled to the USA with her brother John. When she slowed down from traveling in about 5 years, she started looking for a retirement job. So, she went to work for ALCON LABS, putting little bottles into boxes. She loved the temporary work and said no stress was required. After about 3 years, she found a job working in a Bankruptcy Attorneys office as a scanning clerk for 10 more years. She retired a second time at 80 years old.

The past 8 years plus, she had suffered the dementia and has lived in assisted living and dementia care units. But even with this disease she has shared her LORD JESUS everyday with everyone including doctors’, hospital personnel, pastors, and nurses with her bible reading and singing. She has given gospel concerts in ERs and recovery rooms everyone enjoys the songs especially.

The last night she was on this earth there was a melody of gospel and hymns sang to Ruth for about 45 minutes and she enjoyed to music and even without a voice she was lip syncing to words as Jesus was bringing her home.

Ruth is survived by daughter Linda and husband Thomas Pope, daughter Sherri and husband Scott Jansen, son David Ballard and wife Sarah Albright Ballard, grandchildren; Shawntel and husband Greg Coleman, Stephen Pope wife Jessica Lewis, Amanda and husband Justin Mitchell, Matthew Jansen and Courtney, Ethan and Makala Jansen, Nicholas Ballard and Barbara, Sarah Ballard, great grandchildren;

Penelope, Timothy, Jace, Addison, Laramie, Wayland, Walter, Ely.

She is preceded in death by; her parents Martin Luther and Roxy Gipson, siblings; Camille Stovall, Martin Luther Gipson Jr, Edward Gipson, John Gipson and grandson Andrew William Pope.

Serving as pallbearers are Scott Jansen, Thomas Pope, Stephen Pope, Matthew Jansen, Ethan Jansen and Nicholas Ballard.