To view the funeral service for Ruth click on the link https://webcast.funeralvue.com/events/viewer/58794
Ruth Darleen Stowell Chandler, of Daly City, CA. was born on May 8, 1930, in Pocatello, Idaho, the first of seven children born to Grant L. and Wanda C. Jensen Stowell. Ruth had a wonderful childhood playing croquet in the family backyard, spending time at the rustic family cabin in Island Park, Idaho, swimming at Lava Hot Springs, and serving glasses of root beer at the family root beer stand.
While receiving her education in Pocatello, Ruth met her future husband, Sam Chandler, just released from the Army Air Force. She and Sam had met years earlier while she was working at the root beer stand and rekindled their friendship again at the root beer stand and church functions. Sam said that for him it was ‘love at first root beer!’ He sat at the root beer stand whenever she worked and drank root beer until it made him sick just so he could be near Ruth. After a year of courting, they married on August 24, 1948, in the Salt Lake Temple in Salt Lake City, Utah. They lived in Provo, UT and in Nashville, TN where Sam earned advanced degrees and Ruth earned her PHT (Put Husband Through).
After working in the library field for seven years in Idaho and Utah, they transplanted themselves and their three children to the Golden State of California. Sam was Director of Libraries for Daly City for the next 25 years. Ruth’s career was more varied. For four years she was secretary to the business manager of San Francisco State University, then took time off to have three more children.
In 1968, she began part time work with the Daly City Record newspaper. In 1976, with her three oldest children on their own and the three youngest in school, Ruth joined the secretarial work force at the Jefferson Elementary School District. She retired in 1995. The school district asked if she was sure she wanted to retire.
Ruth was active in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. She served in many positions in the Church including Primary and Relief Society at the ward and stake levels, and as a temple ordinance worker. After retirement Ruth and Sam served a Church mission to Argentina.
Ruth’s favorite song was “They Try to Tell Us We’re Too Young”. When Sam and Ruth were married, he was 29 and she was 18. Many people thought Sam and Ruth were an unlikely pair – not suited for each other and the age difference was too big, but they were determined to make it work. Ruth’s thought was, “Oh yeah, we’ll show them.” And they did. They were married for 64 years before Sam passed away and they had a full and wonderful life together.
Ruth is survived by her six children: David Chandler and wife Donna Shipp Chandler, Lloyd Chandler, Lynette Chandler and husband Roger Lubeck, Marianne Chandler Paredes and husband Sergio Paredes, Tom Chandler and wife Madeline Munger Chandler, and Nancy Chandler Hanaike and husband Reggie Hanaike. She also is survived by 24 grandchildren and 42.5 great grandchildren as well as her sisters Helen Wahlquist, Dorothy Ashcraft, Rae Ann Owens, and brothers Lynn Stowell and Dennis Stowell.
Funeral service will be held Thursday, Aug. 19, 2021, at the Eckersell Memorial Chapel in Rigby, Idaho at 12:00 noon. The family will visit with friends prior to the service from 10:30 -11:45 a.m. Burial will be in the Rigby Pioneer Cemetery under the direction of Eckersell Memorial Chapel in Rigby. Condolences may be sent to the family online at www.eckersellfuneralhome.com.
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