Ann Ruth Jones

Ann Ruth Jones was born Tuesday, January 2, 1932, in Memphis Tennessee. She was the first child of Porter Albert and Sarah Humphries Jones. Porter's search for work during the great depression took the family from Tennessee to Georgia where Ruth welcomed her little sister, Elizabeth, whom she christened Libit. From Georgia, the young family moved home to Cleburne Texas, to the small Jones family farm to care for Porter's parents.

It was in central Texas that Ruth, through her family grew to love the outdoors. Frequent family camping trips to the Paluxy river, membership in the Camp Fire Girls, and simply playing and growing among, and climbing in, the pecan trees on the family farm instilled a deep and abiding love of God's creation.

From a very early age, Ruth loved stories and reading and these fueled her own imagination and creativity. She reveled in spinning her own stories for her sister, cousins, and friends.

Ruth graduated from Cleburne High School in 1950. She Attended Lon Morris College in Jacksonville, Texas, earned her Bachelor of Education from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas, and trained for missions work at Scarritt College of Christian Workers in Nashville, Tennessee.

Ruth was a story teller, a teacher, a poet and a naturalist. She trained teachers as a missionary in what was then the Belgian Congo. She worked as a Christian educator in local churches and Methodist conferences in Central and South Texas, Ohio and Pennsylvania. In Ohio and Pennsylvania, she was drawn into a lifelong pursuit of her family's history. And she was never more at home than when hiking through an over-grown forest, surrounded by wild growth, searching for a long forgotten cemetery where a distant relative was said to be buried; except, perhaps, when she was telling, or retelling, the tale afterwards.

Her gift of teaching and storytelling sparkled brightest with children. She had a way of connecting to and communicating with children that went far beyond simply speaking at their level. She could allay fears and coax out curiosity and wonder.

Ruth's life was not an easy one. And yet, this is where her poet's heart most served her. Poetry, the reading of it, and especially, the writing of it was her deepest outlet for sometimes almost unbearable turmoil. She wrote copiously, often just linguistic images of things she couldn't otherwise express.

And when the circle came back around, Ruth cared for Porter and Sarah on that little farm in Cleburne, Texas, just as they had cared for Ruth's grandparents. Along the way, Ruth had earned her EMT certification. This medical skill served her well in caring for, first Sarah then Porter until their deaths.

Ruth moved one last time to Cleveland, Ohio to be near her sister, Libit. She relished the opportunity to spend time with her sister and brother in law, her nephews, and to see her great nieces and nephews grow up.

Ruth died Tuesday morning, November 24, 2020 at David Simpson Hospice House in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ruth was the dear daughter of the late Porter Albert and Sarah Humphries Jones; the dear sister of Elizabeth and husband, the late Melvin Ray Holt, Sr.; the dear aunt of Melvin and wife, Julie, Michael and wife, Cindy, David and wife, Julie, and Charlie; and the dear great aunt of Catherine, Carolyn and husband, Alex, Gwen and Micheal.