Ruby Marie Horton

Ruby Marie Horton was born January 21, 1921 in Okemah, Oklahoma. She was the daughter of Columbus Edward and Ethel (Lankford) DeWitt. Ruby was raised in the Okemah area and attended school in Moss, Oklahoma.

While residing in Horntown (east of Holdenville), Ruby met and then married Willie P. Horton on November 9, 1938 in Calvin, Oklahoma. After their marriage, Ruby and Willie established their initial home in Johnson Holler near Prue, Oklahoma. Within a couple of years the couple moved to Phoenix, Arizona for a short time before returning to Prue when Willie accepted employment driving a school bus for Prue school.

In 1945, the Horton's moved to the Will Rogers Scout Reservation, west of Cleveland where Willie was employed building cabins and facilities. The couple raised their four children, Kathryan Marie, Virginia Lee, Patricia Louise and Jerry Leon while residing west of Cleveland. Nearly eighteen years later in 1964, the couple moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. At that time, Willie and Ruby began taking care of children through the Child Foster Program of the State of Oklahoma. During the next twenty-five years, they shared their love and touched the lives of over one hundred and twenty foster children, many of which still remain in contact with the couple. In 1984, Ruby and Willie were recognized by the State of Oklahoma as exemplary foster parents for twenty years. Prior to Ruby's death on Friday, October 4, 2002 at her home in Tulsa, the couple had rarely been without a house full of children during their sixty-four years of marriage.

Ruby was a faithful member of the Pentecostal Holiness faith. She was a longtime member of the Pentecostal Holiness Church in Cleveland and had been a faithful member of the Vern Pentecostal Holiness Church in Tulsa for many years at the time of her death. Although, Ruby was a devoted mother and foster mother and spent all her life dedicated to children, she still found time to enjoy quilting and collecting antiques. She also was an avid rock hound. Ruby had a work shop where she maintained her rock collection including cutting and polishing equipment.

Ruby is survived by two daughters, Kathryan Marie Harness of Cleveland, Oklahoma and Patricia Louise Duff of Tulsa, Oklahoma; a son, Jerry Leon Horton of Mannford, Oklahoma; fifteen grandchildren; twenty-six great grandchildren; and one great great-grandson; five brothers, Hiram Madison DeWitt of Holdenville, Oklahoma, L. C. DeWitt of Port Angeles, Washington, Kenneth Edward DeWitt of Newalla, Oklahoma, J. R. DeWitt of Midwest City, Oklahoma and Earl Thomas DeWitt of Seattle, Washington; two sisters, Dorothy Lee Horton of Bristow, Oklahoma and Edna Mae Dixon of Tulsa, Oklahoma; numerous foster children and foster grandchildren.

Ruby was preceded in death by her parents; daughter, Virginia Johnson; two grandsons, Robbin Leon Duff and Ira Loyd Duff; and a brother, Harold Odell DeWitt.

Funeral services will be held at 2:00 pm, Tuesday, October 8, 2002 at the Vern Pentecostal Holiness Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma with Pastor Gale Ellis and Eugene Goodman officiating. Burial will be at the Woodland Cemetery in Cleveland under the direction of the Chapman-Black Funeral Home.

''Visit and online obituary and guestbook for Ruby Marie Horton at www.chapman-black.com.''