Ruth M. Stevens

Ruth M. Stevens was born on Oct. 28, 1917 in Jerome to Robert Lee and Effie Cham­bers Penn. Ruth passed away peace­fully on Tues­day (Dec. 6, 2011) at the age of 94.

She was one of eight chil­dren and three sib­lings pre­ceded her in death, Hazel Hornsby, Lawrence Penn and Martha Jones. Four sib­lings sur­vive, Albert Penn (Florida), Elmer Penn (Texas), Lil­lian Weaver (Texas) and David Penn (Ohio). She was a life­long res­i­dent of Delaware County and raised seven chil­dren with her hus­band, Ray­mond on a small farm in Ostran­der. Ruth described her­self as a home­maker, but she was very active out­side the home. Ruth was a mem­ber of the Scioto Grange, Ostran­der United Methodist Church, Delaware County Farm Bureau, Ostran­der Senior Cit­i­zens and a faith­ful 4-H advi­sor. She served as an elec­tion poll worker in Scioto Town­ship for more than 50 years. She enjoyed the oppor­tu­nity to visit with vot­ers as they passed through to the bal­lot booth. Ruth sup­ported all things fam­ily and farm related. She enjoyed gar­den­ing and each sum­mer devoted time to her large array of flow­ers. She was an accom­plished seam­stress and taught all of her daugh­ters how to sew. Ruth did not spend a lot of time sit­ting still. Even with shuf­fling chil­dren back and forth to their endeav­ours (sports, band, FFA), she found time to earn extra cash by paint­ing and hang­ing wall paper. She always cooked the family’s favourite meal (chicken and noo­dles) every hol­i­day. The Christ­mas trea­sure was always the home­made caramels hid­den around the house for the grand­chil­dren to dis­cover. She espe­cially loved the babies and would rock them and sing lul­la­bies for hours. She encour­aged all of her chil­dren to always “do your best.” Her words are car­ried around inside the heads of her prog­eny, “always do you best,” “you can do any­thing if you work hard,” “if you can’t say some­thing nice, say noth­ing,” “the whole pack­age is impor­tant — look good — do good — be good.” Ruth touched the life of any­one who met here with her smile and kindness.

She is sur­vived by four daugh­ters, Donna (Ronald) Bell, Bar­bara (Don­ald) Sher­man, Phyl­lis Jean Stevens and Ray­dene (Rick) Rita — all in Ohio; two sons, Joseph (Betty) Stevens of Texas and James (Annette) Stevens of Ohio; 13 grand­chil­dren; and many great-grandchildren.

She was pre­ceded in death by her hus­band, Ray; a grand­daugh­ter, Judy Bell Jones; and her old­est son, Andrew Stevens.

Friends may call start­ing at noon until ser­vice time at 2 p.m. on Tues­day, Dec. 13, at Rod­man Neeper Funeral Home, 1510 W. William St., Delaware. Inter­ment will fol­low in Fairview Ceme­tery in Ostrander.

In lieu of flow­ers con­tri­bu­tions may be made in Ruth’s name to the Ostran­der United Methodist Church, 166 W. North St., Ostran­der, OH 43061.

Posted by Staff Reports Obits on Dec 10 2011. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS Feed. Comments can be made below.