Ruth Lundy

Ruth Lundy often said she couldn't understand why Gabriel didn't blow his horn for her and "call me home." She must have finally heard his call on the afternoon of Friday, May 31, 2002, at 92½.

Ruth lived a full life. She was born on October 6, 1910, in Comanche, Texas, the eighth of nine children. She was the valedictorian of the Comanche Class of 1927. Later, she spent time as a flapper. Ruth was a single Mom who raised her son by working her way through the Depression as a secretary in Civil Service. She was also a war bride (marrying, as many couples did, the week after Pearl Harbor). As a 50's era Mom, she raised her daughter and hosted business dinners for her husband. She became a secretary with the public school system, a job which lasted the final twenty years of her working life, before her retirement in 1976.

She became a widow in 1982. Beginning in 1984, she got a face lift, took up oil painting, celebrated all major events with five other friends/relatives ("The Widow's Club"), and turned down two marriage proposals within the space of ten years ("neither one could dance"). In 1994, she moved to Fairfax and rented an apartment two doors down from her daughter, Susan Lundy, and her son-in-law and grandson, Jim and Greg Spellerberg.

She made great friends with "younger" neighbors Ralph and Verna Coleman (who often took her out for what they called "Lundy Sundays"); Susan Russell, her neighbor, who made her wonderful hand-made Christmas gifts and took care of her as a nurse-who-is-a-friend always will; neighbors Nancy Frey, Steve and Paige; landlords Hank and Dorothy Yudice; and caregivers Elaine Nehm, Tina Cheplick (who always sang for and with her, which showed great fortitude since the one thing Ruth COULD NOT carry was a tune), and especially Jean Bell, who loved her and (along with Susan Russell, Nancy Frey, and Susan Lundy) visited her on the day she died. Finally, Nadine Madsen and her daughter, Carla Chapman, along with Carla's sons and husband, were kind and caring friends.

Her granddaughters, Deborah Rambo Holmes and Margaret Rambo Cullivan, along with their mother, Francis Rambo, shared visits on most Christmases. When her great-grandson Joey had his first daughter, Haley, Ruth was overjoyed about her "great-great grandbaby." She framed one of Haley's artistic efforts and put it on her "family wall" of portraits. She lost touch with granddaughter Minka Joy Rambo, but in a way kept her memory alive when she read the large-print Bible which Minka had bought for her. Joyce Rambo, her daughter-in-law, sent Christmas and Mother's Day cards from whatever port her Mercy Ship was in at the time. She also left nieces and nephews who considered her a very, very special person. She received weekly letters from Jerry Arthur, her niece by marriage to John Manning Arthur (of Brownwood, Texas). She got weekly phone calls and almost annual visits from nieces Dee Bauer and Patsy Reese. Patsy flew out to keep her company during times that Ruth's daughter and son-in-law were traveling out of the area. Nephew Cleve Denny flew from Bethesda, Maryland, to help celebrate at her 90th Birthday Bash in 2000. Bill and Pat Atwood of Fort Worth and Frances and Roy Marvin of Estes Park, Colorado wrote her, called her, and never failed to remember her at Christmas or her birthday.

Trisha Dhonau and Vicky Portsmouth brought their mom, Eva Mae Randolph (Mom's closest friend and a sister-in-law that she considered really a sister!), out to visit. She is also survived by her friend of over fifty years, Sue Starnes (who has the same birthdate); her two Elwood Street neighbors and “Widow's Club” members, Florine Bowers and Dora Huth; and her sisters-in-law Eva Mae Randolph and Nell Thurston.

She lived the normal type of life everyone hopes they will lead. She was relatively healthy (the only medication she was on until the last week of her life was a baby aspirin and a vitamin a day), maintained a vivid interest in mental puzzles (she did the S.F. Chronicle daily word jumble until two days before she died), and was surrounded by loving family, friends, and her beloved Yorkshire terrier, Dorothy. Dorothy's death on May 1 pretty much "did it" for Ruth. She no longer had to be responsible for any life but her own, and she was ready to go.

We celebrate her life and will miss her deeply. A Celebration of Life is scheduled for Tuesday, June 18, 2002, 2 p.m., at the Fairfax Women's Center. Services will be held on October 5, 2002, at Brown Memorial Funeral Home in Irving, Texas. Graveside services will follow at Oakwood Cemetery, Irving. Her ashes (along with Dorothy's) will be interred beside her husband, Cranford Lundy, and her son, Cecil Rambo. Flowers may be delivered to 123 Lansdale Avenue, Fairfax, CA 94930 for the California service or to Brown Memorial Funeral Home in October for the Texas service.

Bye Bye, Mom, Nana, Aint, or Ruth (as the case may be). As you always said, we will "see you subsequently."