Bobby & Ruth Adamson

He saw her through a church window and immediately told his friends who were present, "I'm gonna marry that girl."

He was in his early twenties, she was still a teenager. He was chasing fame, she was chasing Jesus. He grew up in nightclubs playing music, she grew up in small country churches where everyone knew your name and your business. They were an unlikely pair, some would say that even their meeting was random chance… him from Arkansas, and her from Fort Worth, Texas.

But those of us who know their story know, it was not random chance at all, it was destiny.

The early years of their marriage were spent chasing his career in music. He and his partner Woodie Murray would form the music duo The Farmer Boys and help shape the Bakersfield sound. From Buck Owens, to Merle Haggard, and later even Elvis Presley, they would tour and befriend them all. Signing with Capitol Records, cutting studio albums, and watching their songs climb the charts, made the young married couple believe that his career was going to make them rich, and him famous.

But when his music career came to an end they were neither. He chose family over fame, and she kept him grounded through her faith.

The next chapter of life would see him landing a job at Real Fresh in Visalia, and her eventually ending up in education, working with often troubled young people at Kaweah Continuation High School. He would become a supervisor and she would become a safe place to go when a teenage life was falling apart.

They would leave Farmersville and build their dream home on the Exeter Golf Course and live there for 50 plus years. And it was in that house that they would truly build their legacy.

My sister and I knew little about the struggles before we moved into Fairway Drive (or after for that matter). Not much about the loss of our sister Debra at birth. Not much about the financial pressures of paying bills while he was on the road chasing the dream. Not much about what they did every day to build our family.

But there in the house on Fairway Drive, it began to all come into view.

The older we got, the more we appreciated who they were. Like never hearing them fight, but hearing them laugh (loudly) through our bedroom walls at night. Like him always making sure we had money, and her always making sure we'd said our prayers. Like always eating dinner together at the table at 5 p.m. and always being asked about our day. Like always having Christmas lights put up around the house during Christmas time. Like always being told how much you're loved and how special that you are. Like always having clean clothes and a clean house and later a clean car to drive.

Like always having a place to fall apart. Like always having a home to come to if life didn't turn out the way you thought it would. Like always having someone to talk to who loved you all the way. Like never being a problem, ever. Like the door is always open, at any time, for any reason, and I'm always on your side… this was the legacy of the love story built in the house at Fairway Drive.

It is the legacy that my sister and I, our spouses, our children and our children's children experienced every time we were there. It's a feeling that we miss terribly. It's a feeling that we grapple with how to process.

But this we all agree, we are, and forever will be grateful for the love story of Bobby and Ruth. They have made us who we are, and all that we hope to one day become. We love you more than anything mom and dad (My-E and Papa). We'll see you in a minute.

On July 14, 2024 Ruth Adamson went to heaven, surrounded by family at their home in Exeter… and true to their love story, Bobby Adamson would follow her to glory 24 days later on Aug. 7, 2024 surrounded by family at Standford Tri-Valley Hospital.