Elizabeth Ruyle

ElizabethRuyleObit 4-23-13 A mass for Christian burial in memory of Elizabeth Ruyle, official-ly recognized in 1995 as Oklahoma’s “Mother of the Year,” will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Clinton. Mrs. Ruyle, 83, died Wednesday, April 17, 2013, at the United Methodist Health Care Center in Clinton where she had lived the last three years since suffer-ing a severe stroke. She was a lifelong resident of Custer County and had lived all her adult life in the Clinton area. Father Rex Arnold will preside at the mass with burial following in the Clinton Cemetery under direction of Kiesau-Lee Funeral Home. A wake and rosary will be held at St. Mary’s Catholic Church at 7 p.m. Friday. The former Elizabeth Rose Klein was born June 19, 1929, in the Anthon community of northern Custer County to Peter Q. and Barbara (Gassen) Klein. She grew up at Anthon and graduated from Arapaho High School in 1948. On March 31, 1951, she married Robert Ruyle at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Clinton, and theirs was a devoted re-lationship that lasted 46 years until his death in 1996. He was stricken with both bulbar and spinal polio only 18 months after their mar-riage and spent much of the rest of his life in an iron lung, but together he and his wife raised four children in a four-room house and expand-ed their farming opera-tion east of Clinton from 80 acres that he had bought at age 18 to four full quarters. Following her husband’s death, Mrs. Ruyle began traveling, an activity she quickly grew to enjoy very much. Her sojourns included a pilgrimage to Europe where she visit-ed Italy, the Czech Re-public and its capital city, Prague. Stateside, her travels took her to Oregon, In-diana, Texas, Ohio, Mis-sissippi, California and Missouri, all to visit family. In Indiana she particularly enjoyed vis-iting Notre Dame Uni-versity at South Bend where one of her grand-sons was then a student. She also made several Lenten pilgrimages with her children, brother and sisters, including to the Shrine of the Missionary Oblates in Illinois, to Santa Fe, N.M., and San Antonio, Texas, and to the EWTN television network at Hanceville, Ala., where she appeared on TV during a televised mass. Mrs. Ruyle was an active member of St. Mary’s Catholic Church, accompanying her hus-band to mass every Sat-urday night until he got extremely sick in 1992. One daughter remem-bered that her mother loved music and singing and participated in the church choir for 60 years. She also served many years as president of the Altar Society and was a member of the Western Oklahoma Quilting Guild, the AARP, Ladies Birthday Club, and St. Mary’s Senior Lunch Club. As a pastime, she en-joyed sewing, crocheting, quilting and other handwork. “Because she was at home with my dad, she always had a project or two going,” the daughter remembered. “She was very creative, artistic and particular,” with that last word under-lined. “She would even rip out many hours of work when she found a mistake.” Mrs. Ruyle created her own patterns. Her pro-ductions included filet-crochets, table cloths, bedspreads, altar cloths and other items for her church. At the time of her stroke, every living grandchild and great-grandchild had received at least one hand-quilted blanket from her. All this while caring for her husband, whose polio had left 75 percent of his body paralyzed, and taking a leading role on the farm. “We worked at it togeth-er; it takes togetherness in a marriage,” Mrs. Ruyle said in a 1993 in-terview about her and her husband’s life on the farm, raising wheat and cattle with the help of their children and his brothers, who contribut-ed generously of their time even though they had moved to the Okla-homa City area. “I couldn’t have done it without her, and I don’t think she could have done it without me,” her husband responded. When he was first stricken with the dread disease that was the scourge of the 1940s and ’50s before the Salk vac-cine became available, Mr. Ruyle spent six months in a polio ward at the Elk City hospital. His wife stayed with him night and day, with her parents caring for their only child at the time. Elizabeth was then pregnant with their se-cond child, but unfortu-nately she lost it a week before he entered an iron lung. At the time of their mar-riage she was working for the telephone com-pany, and she had the foresight to add her new husband as a dependent on her health insurance policy. It helped pay their medical bills the rest of their lives. Mrs. Ruyle is survived by two daughters, Cas-sandra Gibbons of Den-ver, Colo., and Jeanette Stone and husband Jack of Clinton; two sons, Robert Ruyle Jr. and wife Susan, Austin, Tex-as, and Tim Ruyle and wife Brenda, Clinton; one sister, Loretta Love-lace, Yukon; one brother, Adolph Klein and wife Rita, El Reno; two sis-ters-in-law, Margaret Ashby and Mildred Ruyle, Oklahoma City; and one brother-in-law, Joe Johnson, Vinita. Fourteen grandchildren and 26 great-grandchildren also sur-vive. The grandchildren and their spouses are Dena and Troy Francis of Clinton; Jennifer and Jason Dotter, Las Vegas, Nev.; Jon and Andrea Stone, Mustang; Jacey and Jay Hopkins, Ponca City; Erin Gibbons, Fort Worth, Texas; Jake and Danielle Stone, Yukon; Thomas and Penelope Gibbons, Cordell; Monica and Tim Nall, Milton, Fla.; Matt and Jasmin Ruyle, Weatherford; Sean and Shelby Ruyle, Dallas, Texas; Heather and Reid Douglass, Nashville, Tenn.; Amie and Sam Johnson, Highlands Ranch, Colo.; Allison and Daniel Bishop, Clinton; and Julie and Matt Cravens, Clinton. Besides her husband and parents, Mrs. Ruyle was preceded in death by one son, Charles Patrick Ruyle (the one who died the same week his grandfather was stricken with polio); five sisters, Christina O’Dower, Genevieve McGoffin, Agatha Klein, Hilda Spencer and Caroline Johnson; and one broth-er, Pete Klein.