11/13/1910 - 01/21/2009
Funeral services for Ruby Mae Ward will be 2:00 p.m. Sunday January 25, 2009 at Farmer Funeral Home in Silsbee with interment to follow at Knupple Cemetery. Visitation will begin at 5 p.m. Saturday at the funeral home.
The eldest of the four well-known Guynes sisters of Hardin County who all made it into their nineties, Ruby (born Ruby Mae Guynes in Kountze, TX) took on the roll of family matriarch at the tender age of twelve when her father passed away during an influenza epidemic in 1923. She promptly quit school and went to work helping her mom and three younger sisters to put food on the family table.
As a child she first demonstrated the iron will for which she was known when a rattlesnake bite that would have killed most simply laid her up for several weeks with no medical treatment. She loved to blame this event for turning her hair prematurely gray in her teens. She married her beloved Cecil Ward in 1932 and stayed at his side until his death from cancer in 1965. Together they had their one son Homer Leon Ward, her pride and joy, who predeceased her in 2000. She prided herself on presiding over family gatherings where no one ever left for want of good food, as well as her ability to step in and help people when they most needed it.
Blessed with excellent health for 97 of her 98 years Ruby lived a long and happy life with her extended family. She lived long enough to see the world change a great deal and to establish many very long-running relationships with people, associations, and institutions; for example, she has been a member of the First Baptist Church of Silsbee since the beginning of the Great Depression.
In addition to a great many wonderful friends to numerous to list, she is survived by her Grandson and wife, Mark & Shannon Ward; her Great Granddaughter, Mallory Ward; her youngest sister, Mittie Stoeppleman; her Nephews and their wives, James & Suzanne Stoeppleman, and Jerry & Judy Stoeppleman; her Grand Niece Suzanne Shaaban; and her dear friends Charles & Willy Jane Kelly.
For those of us who knew her well, there is no doubt that she is now welcomed into the arms of her Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Our wish is that you long rest in well deserved peace our beloved Grandmother, Great Grandmother, Sister, Aunt, and Friend.
