People

: Ruth (Brumbaugh) Long; Mesa County pioneer. Early Loma, Colorado resident. Mother of John Long and Florence Giles.

: Ruth (Key) Hoffman; She was born in Knoxville, TN and moved to Mesa County, Colorado in 1906, when she was eight years old. Her father, Gentry L. Key, was advised to move to the West for his health. She went to school at Pear Park Elementary. Her father died when she was quite young and her mother bought a five acre tract of land. As a result, Ruth and her siblings took any sort of seasonal agricultural work that was offered, including tending the smudge pots for local fruit growers, helping a neighbor with putting up hay and spraying fruit trees (always done on a windless day, to reduce the chances of inhaling the spray), and picking apples using large canvas bags. She packed peaches on West First Street in Palisade in the fall if 1912. In 1913, she packed pears at Hubert Lynn’s orchard. She packed peaches again in 1914 for a fellow named Mr. Hatter. She made eight cents a box working from 7:00 am to 6:00 pm, packing apples for Cross Orchards Ranch in the winter of 1916. In 1917, she began working in the office of the Palisade Fruit Growers’ Association as an assistant bookkeeper on the advice of her manager at the Hoel-Ross Business College. In 1921, she took an administrative job with the Farmer’s Union and continued in office work until her retirement. She married Duane Hoffman in 1922.

: Ruth (Mathers) Harrison; Married to Frank R. Harrison on July 21,1962 - source: Frank F. Harrison Obituary - Steamboat Pilot, Vol. 98, #47, June 16, 1983, page 2D " TO DENVER Ruth Harrison, widow of pioneer rancher Frank Harrison, has moved to her home in Denver to avoid our Routt County winters. She will be missed by her many friends." - source: Steamboat Pilot, Vol. 99, #16, November 10,1983, page 2D

: Ruth (McQueen) Smith; She was born to Guy L. McQueen and Emma E. (Barker) McQueen in Missouri. Her father was a time keeper and clerk for a railroad in Texas, and later the owner of a paint store in Grand Junction, Colorado. Her mother was a homemaker. Ruth grew up in Texas and in Grand Junction. She attended one year of high school in Palestine, Texas and finished school at Grand Junction High School. While in high school she was in the Glee Club, was the treasurer of the Rhetorical Club, the literary editor of Orange and Black, participated in Operetta, was part of the Latin Club, and served as the Class Historian. She served on the Orange and Black at the same time as Dalton Trumbo, who later became an Oscar winning screenwriter. She graduated the same year as Isabella Cunningham. Both later became reporters for the Daily Sentinel newspaper. She began her career as a reporter in the 1920’s and worked through the 1940’s. She also was a “stringer” for United Press International. The 1930 Census shows Ruth living with her parents at 1559 North 7th Street. She married Alvin W. Smith in Manatee, Florida on March 17, 1945. He was an airline inspector for the Civil Aeronautics Administration. The 1950 US Census shows them living in Los Angeles with their two children. She died in Ventura, California, where she is buried. *Photograph from the 1923 Grand Junction High School yearbook.

: Ruth (Tucker) Smith; She volunteered at the Museums of Western Colorado and had a room dedicated to her at the Museum. She also volunteered for several other organizations, including The Gray Ladies (Red Cross), Korean War blood drives, St. Mary’s Hospital, music and theater-related organizations, and the Western Colorado Center for the Arts. She was in charge of Ladies Day for the 75th anniversary celebration of the City of Grand Junction.

: Ruth A. Larson; She was born on a farm in Illinois to Eliott and Annie Larson. She became an elementary school teacher who began her teaching career in the Fort Collins, Colorado area. She then settled in Grand Junction, Colorado where she first taught at Lincoln Orchard Mesa School and moved on to teach at several different schools in the area. She taught for a total of 39 years. She was also the principal at Tope Elementary School. She also served as the principal of the Washington School for a time, because classes from Tope were taught there due to overcrowding. Her parents owned and farmed the land on the corner of 12th and North Streets in Grand Junction, Colorado.

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