RUTH BRYAN

Ruth Lavon Droubay Bryan 1924 ~ 2010 A few miles north of Tooele, in the shadow of the beautiful Oquirrhs, there is a place where the roads named for the Bryan and Droubay families intersect. The old Droubay home is less than a mile away. Here in this beloved landmark, the home in which she grew up, Ruth Lavon Droubay Bryan passed quietly out of this life, on Friday morning, December 10., 2010 She was born July 14, 1924, the second child and first daughter of John Rowberry and Annie Shields Droubay. She had nothing but sweet memories of her Erda girlhood. She loved tending the animals and riding the horses, but she also loved school, and she turned out to be a natural as soon as she started piano lessons. She married her one and only, Joel Ray Bryan, June 16, 1943, in the Salt Lake Temple. They spent their early married life in Florida, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and New York, before settling in Covina, California. They were among the founding members of the Covina LDS Ward. Ruth accepted many church callings, but the one she loved most was playing the organ. When Ray retired, they thought hard, then decided to move back to Utah, knowing how much the old family home meant to their children and grandchildren. Together they restored and refurbished; today, the old place shines. Ruth was her sweet parents' true daughter. She seldom raised her voice, but she possessed the rock-hard fortitude that got her forebears across the plains and over the mountains. She saw both her parents through their last days, and when Ray's final years turned out to be rougher than anyone could have predicted, she drew on a reserve of love and patience that is still a source of amazement. Love, in fact, was all she knew--the giving, and the receiving back a hundredfold. Her children: Karen (Calvan), Kearns; Paula (Gregory), Layton; Leanne (Ivan), Sudbury, Vermont; Joel (Julie), Thousand Oaks, California; Sandra (Blair), Sandy; Sterling (Christine), Taft, California; Marie (Steve), Sandy; Anita (Phil), Belle Meade, New Jersey. There are more than thirty grandchildren, an ever-growing contingent of great-grands, and nieces and nephews enough to fill a small theatre. Sisters Merlynn (George Barrus), Bertha (Dwight Clark), and brothers Wendell (Geraldine) and Robert (Bonney) also survive. Waiting (with varying degrees of patience) on the other side: Ray, who was never far from her thoughts and dreams; her parents; one sister and one daughter, both named Kathleen. The family will gather and greet friends on Thursday, December 16, at 10 a.m., at the Rose Springs LDS Chapel, Highway 36 and Erda Way. The service is set to begin at 12:00 p.m. Arrangements by Tate Mortuary, Tooele; burial in Tooele City Cemetery.