Ruby Inez Bean

BEAN, Ruby Inez (Dillman), 89, Godly, beloved, devoted and ever-inspiring matriarch to seven children, 25 grandchildren and 21 great-grandchildren, peacefully completed her extraordinary Heaven-bound earthly journey in Nashville, TN and met her Savior face to face on December 5th, 2014. Born in San Diego County, CA on January 30, 1925, Ruby was the second child of Wilbur and Meadie Dillman. She was a Registered Nurse and member of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Created to fulfill the urgent need for nurses during World War II, the Corps was the nation's first integrated uniformed service. Near the war's end, she met and soon married Army Air Corps fighter and transport pilot Lyle Albert Bean (deceased). Hand-in-hand, heart-to-heart, Ruby & Lyle's lives were together for 59 years, enthusiastic, bright and shining examples of Christian servant leadership to their children and to their families, to church communities and fellowships, and to all of those whose lives they touched in Berkeley & Oxnard, CA, Princeton, NJ, Austin & Dallas, TX, Carlsbad, CA and Nashville, TN. Caring, sensitive and loving spirits, Ruby & Lyle established an enduring legacy of hospitality and care-giving. Their shared ministry, proudly and eagerly carried forward by Ruby throughout the 10 years following Lyle's death in 2004, was first and foremost to honor God in their relationship with family and friends, to be an example of love for strangers and to provide encouragement and support in any and every possible way for the lonely, the young and the hurting. Remembering her pre-teen and early life that was shaped by significant national and world events, she frequently reminisced about picnics in San Diego's Balboa Park, harvesting abalone from the beach cliffs, moving to Julian for a time because her father could find work there during the Great Depression, and marching with San Diego High School Band as part of the Drill Team. She often described with sadness the day her Japanese-American friends had to leave school to go to internment camps as World War II escalated. Upon graduation from San Diego High School, she trained at San Diego County General Hospital as part of the U.S. Cadet Nurse Corps. Following their marriage in 1945, Ruby & Lyle rented a room in the home of Dr. & Mrs. William Green in Berkeley, CA, while Lyle completed his tour of active military duty and Ruby her RN degree at Stanford-Layne Hospital in San Francisco. She fondly described this first home as the Green Bean House. After the war, Ruby & Lyle lived in Martinez, CA. During these years in the bay area Ruby bore their first three children. In 1951 the Beans moved to Oxnard, CA, where the other four children were born and where she taught Bible classes at the Oxnard Church of Christ and served those in need with her nursing skills. An accomplished gardener, she cheered neighbors, friends and church family members with flowers, fruit and vegetables from her garden. And she mentored countless women young and old through long hours of personal and phone counseling. Blessed to be born into a family with a strong heritage of faith, Ruby came to know Jesus as her Lord at a young age. Based in large measure on the example of Godly parents and Bible truths taught at San Diego's El Cajon Blvd. Church of Christ, where she and her family were original members, at every stage of her life, she was nurturer. She will forever be remembered by those whose lives she touched and who touched hers for her quick and ready smile and an extraordinary ability to fill a room with laughter, and for the empathy that she felt and expressed to those at any place or time throughout her life's journey who were experiencing hurt and pain. Sociable, thoughtful, attentive, considerate, joyous, full of fun are words and phrases with which she is most often described. Ruby was still raising children when she assumed the primary care for her aging parents. Retirement years for Ruby & Lyle included a six-year stay in Dallas, followed by a decade in Carlsbad. Her final 14 years were spent in Nashville, TN, not far from her mother's birth place. Even though her children and grandchildren were soon scattered from coast to coast, north to south, and even around the world, Ruby always found a way to be engaged with each one. She once sent a paper placemat with a map of Greece from a Greek restaurant in Carlsbad to help grandchildren with their geography lessons. She sent papyrus-like bark from a paper birch tree so grandchildren could have a California horticultural experience. Preceded in death by Lyle, by her parents, by her brother, John Dillman, and by her son-in-law, Rick Johnson, she is survived by her seven children, Diane (Mel) Storm, Jim (Julie) Bean, Virginia Johnson, Susan (Kent) Johnson, Jean (Mark) Miller, Janet (Dan) Johnston, Larry (Erinn) Bean, 25 grandchildren, 21 great-grandchildren, her brother, George (Virginia) Dillman, and sisters-in-law Sarah Blackwell Dillman, Blanche Dunbar, and Ruth Schirer. In later years, Ruby enjoyed inducting her doctors and nurses into “The Laughing Club,” which consisted of her chortling out a huge belly laugh that could be heard down all the clinic halls and rooms. With Ruby's entrance, Heaven must be filled with laughter! In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions may be made to American Parkinson Disease Association, http://www.apdaparkinson.org/ or Embrace, (birthing support for refugees) http://friendsofrefugees.com/about-embrace/.