Ruby Marie Kopka

Ruby Marie Kopka said goodbye to us on December 10, 2024 at Lenawee Medical Care Facility, under the care of Hospice of Lenawee, where she had been receiving wonderful care for the past 2 years. Ruby was born on June 26, 1930 in Birdsall, Michigan to Kernie and Marie Gayhart. She and her sister Julia were raised in Palmyra, Michigan. She graduated from Adrian High School with the class of 1948. On July 10, 1949, Ruby married Wayne Kopka. They made their home in Palmyra, later becoming parents to a daughter, Brenda Joyce. She loved crafting, antiques, travelling with her husband and dear friends Pat and Clinton Johnston, visiting her daughter and grandchildren in Arizona, where they lived for a time, and anyone who knew her knows how much she loved ribbon. She had boxes and boxes of it and her eyes would light up in the ribbon aisle at craft stores. She always just needed one or two more rolls. She was also a 4-H leader.
Ruby had a very close relationship with her sister, Julia (Gayhart) Golembiewski. Ruby never drove so Julia would come to pick her up, beep 2 times, and they would go for a ride. The two sisters were always there for each other, including when each of them lost their husbands in death. Ruby was the most incredible grandmother to Chance (Andrea) Dew, Tracie (Bob) Friedley and Shonda (Joel) Grimes. A wonderful great-grandmother to Mychelle (Jared) Gonzalez, Cole Bayles, Kelsey (Nicholas) Guerra, Parker Dew (who preceded her in death in 2004), Payten Dew and Carson Dew. And she was blessed with two great-great granddaughters, Makenzie and Madelynn Gonzalez, whom she adored. Her daughter and grandchildren could do no wrong in her eyes. She had a special relationship with her son-in-law, Douglas Dew. He was one of her own and she couldn't have chosen a better husband for her daughter. He loved to tell her inappropriate jokes and watch while she figured them out. Sometimes she didn't figure them out and was known to retell them to her friends. Ruby had a very strong faith in God. Her church was a huge part of her life. She taught Sunday school and was an elder in the Palmyra Presbyterian Church for many years and was its oldest living member. There was never a funeral dinner in the church community room where she was not present and attending to the mourners. Ruby lived a long, happy life and she touched many people. So many people knew her as Grandma Ruby, Aunt Ruby, Rhubarb, and to one special person, Rubester. She was an amazing wife, mother, mother-in-law, grandmother, aunt, sister, sister-in-law, daughter and friend.
Along with her parents, she was preceded in death by her sister and brother-in-law Julia and Alfred Golembiewski, great-grandson Parker Douglas Dew, lifelong friends Patricia and Clinton Johnston, her in-laws William and Edna Kopka and her dear husband and true love, Wayne William Kopka.
Visitation will be at Anderson-Marry Funeral Home in Adrian, Michigan from 11AM to 1PM, Monday, December 16th, followed by a memorial service. Interment of cremains will be at a later date. Memorial donations can be made to Hospice of Lenawee.