Ruby Faye Parsley

Ruby Faye Parsley was born in Appleton, Arkansas on December 17th 1934. She was the seventh of eleven children born to Joseph William Melton and Gertha Edna Wright. Her childhood was spent caring for younger siblings and discovering the hills and valleys of the Ozark Mountains where she grew up. Ruby had many stories to tell of sometimes frightening, and often funny adventures she shared with her siblings. She was a guard on the basketball team and crowned Homecoming Queen for Hector High.  Leaving home, she moved to St. Louis, MO where sister Margie lived, and a few years later she settled in Sacramento, CA, where brother Jay lived. It was here she met Samuel S Parsley, her spouse of fifty years, until his passing in 2010. They bought a home in Elk Grove, CA in 1963 and raised their children, Chad James Parsley and Ruby Chareen Sketchley in what was then a small town.

 Ruby worked for Aerojet and the Yellow Pages before attending night classes at Sacramento City College, where she would become a Library Tech. Working in the library at Elk Grove High School for twenty-five years combined her love of books and teens, and enabled her to have free summers to spend more time with her children. There were plenty of summer trips to Arkansas where the bulk of Melton cousins lived. When in Elk Grove, the lawn and driveway of the Parsley home often had gaggles of children playing tag or baseball, or just hanging out. It was a safe place to be and the neighbors knew Mrs. Parsley was around to tend to any scrapes, mishaps, or scuffles the kids might find themselves in. Ruby offered kindness to all and she excelled at being a volunteer in the community. Whether she was sewing costumes for school plays, baking something delicious, hosting Cub Scouts as a den mother, singing in the church choir at First Baptist Church, collecting school supplies and shoes for children, handing out clothing at the EG clothes closet, chaperoning kids at church camp, helping to build a hospital wing in Cameroon, Africa, or teaching a women’s Sunday school class at Creekside Christian Church, she did all of these with joy and love for others. The mayor of Elk Grove awarded her a Volunteer of the Year award in 2014 for her contributions as the Neighborhood Watch coordinator in the Walnut Orchard where she lived until 2020.

Ruby struggled with Alzheimers for several years and lived with family as the disease progressed. Even with this, until a few weeks ago her quirky, delightful sense of humor remained intact. She was taken from this world on June 24th 2025 with family members by her side until the end. She will be missed by her children, grandchildren, great children, nieces and nephews, siblings, friends, her dog Max, and any other human or animal who was blessed enough to know the incredible and lovely, Ruby Parsley. The homecoming in heaven would have been a celebration indeed when she reunited with those gone before.