Ruth L. (Douglas) White

Ruth Lavern White, a  Hamburg resident the last 63 years, died early Sunday morning, at the Ambassador in Sidney.  She was born at home, April 30, 1928 on her great-grandparents farm in Dale Township, Atchison County Missouri.   Her parents were Donald Emmit Douglas and Esther Bradfield.  

The first two years of her life were spent on the farm.  In 1930, the family moved to Watson, where her father had taken a position as agent for the Standard Oil Company.  In Dec of 1931 she was joined by a sister, Donna and in 1947, the Douglas’ adopted Dixie Jo Dozier.  

Ruth attended Watson school graduating in 1947. After graduating from high school, she got a job in Shenandoah for the summer.  While there, she met her future husband, Virgil White, who was also working in Shenandoah at Mount Arbor Nursery.  They were married at her parents home in Watson, Dec 25, 1947, in what the Atchison County Mail described as an old-fashioned home wedding.  An honored guest was her grandfather, Frank Bradfield. 

After three years had passed, the Korean conflict was escalating  and Virgil, who was a naval reservist, was recalled to active duty.  When the rural mail carrier brought his reactivation notice, Ruth made him carry it into a farm field to personally hand it to Virgil so she wouldn’t have to give him the news.  Upon learning that Virgil’s duty station would be Treasure Island naval air station, Ruth packed up and moved to Alameda, California for the duration.  When the armistice was signed, the pair moved back to Watson and settled into married life in a house just north across the street from the new Watson school building.

Eventually they decided to start a family.  First a daughter Virginia, and then a son, Robert, was born.  

In 1959 Ruth’s father had the opportunity to become the Standard agent in Oregon, Missouri, and he and her mother were to move from Watson to Oregon in the fall of the year.  Virgil was working at Interstate Nursery and so he and Ruth decided to move to Hamburg at the same time so he could be closer to his place of employment.  In September 1959, they bought a house on south Argyle Street that would be Ruth’s home for the next 56 years.  In 1962, another son, Wayne, was born.  

As the children grew older, Ruth decided to get a job and help provide some extra income for the family.  She applied to work with the kitchen staff at the old Hamburg hospital located on Bluff Street.  She got the job and worked at  the hospital with the kitchen staff for the next 46 years, retiring in the fall of 2014 at the age of 86 only because her eyesight was beginning to fail.  During her years on the job she saw many changes.  First of which was George Grape donating money to construct a new hospital building in the early 1970’s.  When the construction was completed,  the hospital moved to the new facility.  Ruth held every position in the kitchen staff starting as a cook, then working up to supervisor and before her retirement she had relinquished her duties to the younger staff and ended her career as the dishwasher.  She worked so long because she enjoyed being around the hospital staff who had been her friends all those years and it gave purpose to her life.  

In her younger days, Ruth enjoyed sewing, crocheting, bird watching, and raising flowers, among other activities.  She didn’t enjoy the canning and freezing that went with growing a large vegetable garden, but she did it anyway. She even put up with a yearly one week camping excursion to the Rocky Mountains for several years.  Tent camping in the wilderness, sleeping on the ground, cooking on a propane camp stove or just over a campfire.  Also Ruth took several tours with Niehart Travel and got to experience things such as traveling to Alaska by bus, more than once, and going to Churchill, Manitoba to view polar bears from a helicopter and also up close in a tundra buggy.           

Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, her husband Virgil in 1985, her son Wayne in 1994, and both of her sisters, Donna McCann and Dixie Jo Kerns.  She is survived by daughter, Virginia, and son, Robert, both of Hamburg.  She is also survived by a granddaughter Robin White of Burlington Junction, Missouri, and her great grand daughters; Baleigh, Amie, and Breanna McElroy of Logan, Iowa. Several nieces, nephews, and cousins.

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