Ruth A. Clark

Ruth E. (Warwick) Clark December 29, 1912 ~ April 11, 2014 I was born on a farm about five miles from the town of Tekoa, WA. The date of my birth was December 29, 1912. It was a snowy day and the doctor had come to our house in a sleigh pulled by two horses. My aunt, Bertha Birk, who was mother's sister, was the midwife. She lived in Tekoa and was married to Art Birk. She rode out to the farm with the doctor. My sister, Lucile, was born in the same farmhouse on January 27, 1916. My parents were Sam and Ida Warwick. Dad was a wheat farmer, as well as his father, Thomas Warwick, in and around Tekoa and Latah, WA. When I was four, dad rented a wheat farm near Spangle, WA, so we move there and stayed until 1918. At that time, I went to Tekoa to attend school and lived with my grandparents and aunt, Bertha. On November 11, 1918, the principal came into the room and announced that WWI had ended. Incidentally, I had two cousins who were in WWI. One was gassed and later died from his exposure to the mustard gas. In 1919, my folks moved from Spangle to Rosalia to farm. I went there to live with my sister and parents. I attended a one-room country school. Our mode of transportation was the family horse, as it was about three miles. When the weather was bad in the winter, dad would take us in his model T Ford. We lived there until I was in the sixth grade. We then moved back to Tekoa, where dad rented farmland on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation. I continued my education in Tekoa and graduated Salutatorian on May 30, 1930. That summer, after graduation, I worked as a stenographer at the Indian agency on the Coeur d'Alene reservation. I worked there until September, then went to business school in Spokane. When the school year was done, I went back to the Indian agency to work for the summer. The Federal Indian Bureau sent a new Federal Marshall to the agency. After a few weeks on the job, he observed an old Indian lady had five or six bags of gold in the cellar of her house. The Indians had been paid in gold by the Indian Bureau for several years and she had saved this over this time period. We called the new marshal "Two Gun Hart", as he wore two six guns and his last name was Hart. He asked me and a co-worker, Romayne, to accompany him to deliver the gold to the bank. The bank was about 15 miles from Tekoa. She and I rode in the back seat of Hart's Buick touring car. It did not have windows like the new cars, but had floppy curtains. We came into town with the sirens screaming and stopped in front of the bank. Hart rounded up the town marshal and his deputy. The two cops stood guard at the bank door while Hart, myself and Romayne hauled the gold into the bank. Footnote: In 1941, a half page article came out in the Spokane Chronicle that a Federal officer by the name of Hart, who had been at the agency, was the brother of Al Capone, who had left home and the age of 17 in Chicago and changed his name. We had a good laugh on that. After finishing business school, I went to work for the Tekoa grain growers. I married Foster Clark in 1933. He graduated from Tekoa High in 1927, and was working at the Tekoa grain growers. Foster went to Cheney Normal and graduated in 1936, with a teaching degree. He taught one year in Manson, WA. In 1938, we moved to Bluestem, WA to run the grain growers there. After one year there, we moved to Tekoa to open up an insurance agency. In 1940, I went to Washington D.C. to work for the census bureau. I took a civil service exam while at business school and this was my first appointment. WWII was raging in Europe, so I came home to run the agency in case Foster was drafted. Our son, Sam, was born in August of 1941, and at about the same time, Foster went to Gonzaga for air cadet training. He had been flying for two years. He was drafted into the Army Air Corps and became a glider pilot and was sent to Sartoga, AR to train new pilots. He was discharged two years later. Our second son, Art, was born in 1944. We stayed in Tekoa until Foster received his graduate degree in speech therapy. We then moved to Prosser, WA in 1952, and stayed until 1965. Foster received his Masters in School Psychology from Western. We then moved to Omak, WA, where he was Special Education Instructor for intermediate school district. I worked for Kahlow plumbing and electrical. In 1974, we both retired and moved back to Prosser. Foster died in 1982, and I stayed in Prosser until I moved to Wenatchee in 1997, to be close to my son, Sam and his wife, Jane. I have close ties to Wenatchee, as my grandparents are buried here, as well as two aunts. Ruth is survived by two sons, Sam and wife, Jane of East Wenatchee and Art and wife, Jennifer of Deming, WA; six grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. Ruth was preceded in death by her parents, Sam and Ida Warwick; her husband, Foster Clark; and her sister, Lucile Boros. The family would like to thank Confluence Health, the staff at Bonaventure of East Wenatchee, and the nurses at Hospice. Graveside Services will be held on Friday, April 18, 2014, at 1:00 p.m. at the East Prosser Cemetery in Prosser, WA. Donations may be made at your local food bank. Arrangements by Telford's Chapel of the Valley, East Wenatchee.

Ruth A. Clark

December 29, 1912 - April 11, 2014